I just ordered a CD of Bobby Darin’s greatest hits, and noticed that this song was one of his biggies. This reminded me to start this long-intended thread. I looked up the lyrics, and here are a few excerpts:
“Ya know when that shark bites, with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spread”
and
“Now on the sidewalk … uuh, huh … whoo … sunny mornin’ … uuh, huh
Lies a body just oozin’ life …”
WTF? Who would write a melodious, cheerful-sounding song which basically praises a psychopathic, murderous gangster?
I’m not criticizing the melody of this song or its execution, but somebody was smoking some wacky backy the day they wrote these lyrics.
It’s a translation from German, from Berthold Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (music by Kurt Weil), which itself is a heavily political adaptation of an 18th century British satire called The Beggars’ Opera. Recent thread.
No idea how it got into the Rat Pack’s repertoire, though.
Darin hipped it up the n[sup]th[/sup] degree but his basic arrangement is very similar to Louis Armstrong’s arrangement that had come out a couple of years previously.
I’m pretty sure Bobby Darin knew that crowd even if he wasn’t considered an actual member. And I think I heard somewhere that Darin was the only performer that Sinatra never wanted to follow on stage.
The part of the song I can’t get over is the mention of Lotte Lenya in the last verse. Maybe I’ve seen too many glamorized American gangster flicks, but that seems like a roll call of the femmes fatale that would be hanging on Mack’s arm around town. And then to see Lotte Lenya as the hatchet-faced Colonel Klebb in From Russia With Love. (In real life, she was Kurt Weill’s widow after 24 years of marriage.)
Oh, and “Lucy Brown” would be Lucy Van Pelt’s name if she married Charlie Brown.
I’ve heard very, very wrong versions of this song by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra and Jimmy buffet, but Darin’s version absolutely kills.
Well said, Robot Arm. Bobby Darin was IMHO the only performer contemporary with Sinatra who could challenge him. These days, there’s only Michael Buble’ and Darin would run him off the stage. Darin was as close to a total night club performer as anyone but Sammy Davis has come.
Since acquiring Sirius satellite radio, I’ve been listening to the “Standards” station a lot. I knew nothing about Bobby Darin before this, but every time I hear one of his songs, I become more interested in him as a singer. He had one hell of a voice! He’s joining Mel Torme, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis, Jr. as one of my favorite singers.
The fact that he was a drummer gave him the snap that Torme’ had. He could sell the most ridiculous of songs, including one he wrote for the teeny-bopper crowd in the 50’s (Splish Splash I was Takin A Bath) before he moved up to the suave club singer later in his career.
You simply must see the tribute to Darin by Kevin Spacey, Beyond The Sea, which is one of the most unsung movies of a musical nature in recent times. A labor of love by Spacey and a decent bio on Darin.
I heard this song in Threepenny Opera. It was actually rather doleful, at least in that production. Real downer of a show overall. There was something about the song that begged for an accordion, though. Reading your comments, I’m really curious to hear the Boby Darin version.
The song is indeed meant to be doleful and accordion-accompanied, jaderabbit. Moritat is translated as ‘ballad’ but that doesn’t quite get it. It is the sort of thing sung by someone in the market describing the news of a murderer or criminal.( Wikipedia entry (German)).
Lotte Lenya played Pirate Jenny. Louis Armstrong was the one who added her name to the lyrics. Speaking of Pirate Jenny, I have Nina Simone’s version of that song because I can’t find a cast album. Did anyone else do a worthwhile take on it?
And whether it’s Armstrong’s version or Darin’s, Mack the Knife is way cooler than Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
Ella Fitzgerald’s version from *Live in Berlin * is a classic of jazz, and my second-favorite version after Darin’s. At one point she actually forgets the lyrics, but is such a terrific improviser that she salvages the song and ended up making a new classic version in the process.
My mom actually knew Bobby Darin. They grew up in the same Italian neighborhood in the Bronx on 138th Street. She was best friends with a girl that lived in the same building on the ground floor. He was a nice kid that would tag-a-long with the teen-age Girls sometimes.
She said he was a pretty nice skinny little kid but couldn’t believe it when she realized Bobby Darin was little Bobby from the neighborhood.
My Father says his Sister (Mom) was kind of crazy. She use to smoke out on the fire escape while wearing skirts sometimes without panties on. Apparently she was popular entertainment for the neighborhood boys. (No TV or Internet in those days of course). Apparently she could curse up a blue streak also.
I have heard Sinatra liked him and set him up with some Vegas Gigs.
Lotte Lenya’s version of the song (in German) is much superior to Darin’s: it was not meant to be swung, but instead is a haunting, almost mesmerizing song.
This site has German version, though not by Lenya. It also has Ella Fitzgerald’s swing version.
