Frank Sinatra - Mack The Knife (Original Stereo)

"Mack The Knife" was composed in 1928 with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their stage drama "Die Dreigroschenoper", or, as it is known in English, "The Threepenny Opera". The song has become a jazz standard although it took until 1956 before any of the jazz greats, Louis Armstrong in this instance, decided to record it. Bobby Darin recorded the definitive version of this tune late in 1958 and took it to the top of the pop charts in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald recorded a live version of it the following year from a concert she performed in Berlin. Frank Sinatra waited almost his entire recording career before tackling the song in this 1984 recording with Quincy Jones arranging and conducting an all-star band that included among others, double-bassist Major Holley, who starts the song with a scat over the first few bars.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Frank Sinatra
• Mack The Knife
• Quincy Jones
• Major Holley
• Kurt Weill
• Bertolt Brecht

[January2454]

This song is owned by Bobby Darin and nobody else can touch it. Sinatra and everybody else (living and dead) should just leave it alone. Sinatra has other great songs, but his version of this one just sounds anemic. Go listen to Darin do it.

[Nocaro]

@January2454 I think most people have heard Darin's version of "Mack The Knife" and certainly he "owns" the song, but many people have recorded it including Sinatra who purposely didn't record it while Darin was still alive because the song was so closely associated with him. However, recording artists like Patti Page and Ella Fitzgerald recorded some very interesting versions of i,t and in Ella's case a very famous live cover of it.

[Nocaro]

@January2454 BTW, Sinatra was a very elderly gentleman when this was recorded and had Darin lived this long and tried to sing it, his recording might have sounded comparatively anemic to a young Darin singing it.

[TheBoomhahaha2]

I was watching a movie about Sinatra and his music. One thing a person said was that people loved him for giving credit and not taking a lot for his own. You can see that it's true in this, when he sings all the people that sang this before. Also in his recording of "Hello Dolly" when he swaps a few words out to give props to Louis Armstrong.

[Kurbellwelle]

Slow- Fox

[Redgoo2]

@January2454 too late now their all dead now :P

[ezraloomis]

@January2454 Armstrong does it for me. He's undeniable

[luv2kissfeet]

drop the ad!!!!!!!

[sandragail1]

no better male singer than sinatra dear.



[sandragail1]

you must be joking - frank sinatra is the best male singer ever DEAR!!

[newstart2009]

The LP cut of this song is slightly different. It doesn't have the overdub at the end of the song, I have the LP and noticed the difference when it finally came to CD.

[sweetiepillow]

@January2454 Frank is mentioning Mr Darin while he is singing this song, in the middle of this song, however with all respect to Bobby the one sang by Dean was phenomenal too

[bflydiva]

I love Darins version best!! No one can sing it like he can!