Mack the Knife Sung by Lotte Lenya

it wasnt written for his wife

brilliant!

Thank you for this classic - Dj

You are right about him allowing his wife to sing the song, but I think he wrote it as part of "The Three Penny Opera" and his original intent was a bit of sarcasm directed at the main character who was making hugely expensive demands that almost bankrupted the company, so he wrote it to make this guy look as evil as his character was. The story is at:
straightdope (.) com/columns/read/2155/whats-th e-story-behind-mack-the-knife

Wow! How in the WORLD did you get this scratch free! This is a very OLD recording--must be from about 1928, and it must have been from one of those old scratchy glass 78 records. Yet you can't hear any scratches. Wonderful! Thankyou for uploading this!

Don't forget people, Rosa Klebb tried to kill James Bond. Although, had Timothy Dalton been the actor at the time, they could have let her succeed.

YOU TIT

One of the best version which has similar technique to Lotte Lenya, is the one by Marianne Faithful.

@ Dr Cruel: Only an emptyheaded clot wd dismiss the 3d Operas heavyweight socialist message as 'anarchist propaganda' which is about as open minded as saying the Bible is just a bunch of degenerate Hebrew folk tales. This 'Threepenny Opera' was written at the same time as John Steinbecks 'Grapes of Wrath' - another minor piece of 'anarchist propaganda', I imagine you might say. You're not a member of 1950s US Senator McCarthys family by any chance, are you? No one is perfect least of all me!

@ Loliripe; ' Here's one for you intellectuals (don't be shy)
'Remember wise old Solomon,
Recall his history.
He was the wisest man on Earth
And yet he cursed the day of his birth!
He knew that 'All Is Vanity'.
So not much fun,
Had Solomon.
I guess you get the message now,
But I'll spell it for you anyhow.
His brains it was that put him on the spot. I thought having brains was good ! Guess not...'
- 'Solomon Song', words by Bertolt Brecht, music Kurt Weill, 'Threepenny Opera'.