This ballad was part of composer Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera which was an adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera (1728) by John Gay, English playwright and societal satirist (1685-1732). The lead character of Gay’s opera is named Captain MacHeath, a gentleman who prefers the company of cutthroats and whores. The central theme of The Beggar’s Opera, the most popular play of the 18th century, is that the same characters inhabit prisons and governmental positions.

In the 1920’s Europe was recovering from World War I and Kurt Weill was interested in the Music for the People movement. He teamed with Marxist poet Bertolt Brecht to translate into German, adapt, and update The Beggar’s Opera with MacHeath becoming a gangster named Mackie Messier or Mack the Knife. “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” was originally entitled “Moritat,” meaning “murder song” (“mord” meaning murder and “tat” meaning deed), and it was positioned just after the Overture so as to establish Mack’s evil nature early on in the production. It was sung by a street singer who pointed to images of the crimes Mackie has committed such as arson, rape and murder.

Like The Beggar’s Opera, The Threepenny Opera or Die Dreigroschenoper, as it was originally titled, dealt with corruption in modern government, contributing to its immense success when it opened in 1928. “Moritat” became a big hit in Berlin in the 1930s. After running for thousands of performances in Germany and other countries, The Threepenny Opera failed on Broadway in 1933. However, it was performed at Brandeis University in 1952 under the baton of Leonard Bernstein with new English lyrics by Marc Blitzstein. It moved off-Broadway in 1954, ran for 94 performances, reopened in 1955 and ran for 2611 more with Weill’s wife Lotte Lenya as prostitute Jenny Diver. MGM pressed the cast recording, the first for an off-Broadway production, but somewhat sanitized the “Mack” lyrics for family fare.

In his book Stardust Melodies Will Friedwald tells the story of how and why the song entered the jazz repertoire and became such a hit in America. An executive at Columbia Records, George Avakian, thought “Mack the Knife” would make a great jazz instrumental. After being turned down by several noted musicians, he convinced trad jazz bandleader and trombonist Turk Murphy of its potential. Turk arranged the song and, in turn, recommended Louis Armstrong as the vocalist. When MGM heard that Armstrong was going to record “Mack,” they rushed Dick Hyman into the studio to record it on his “harpsichord piano.” Avakian recorded Murphy’s instrumental version, Lotte Lenya singing it in German for the European market, and the Armstrong version. Both the Hyman and Armstrong recordings were released in 1955, but Armstrong’s jazzier version is the one that has endured. A few months after these two releases Chappell Music officially changed the name of the song to “Mack the Knife.”

Both Bing Crosby and the Les Paul/Mary Ford duo jumped on the bandwagon and successfully recorded the song. But it was Vegas showman Bobby Darin who brought “attitude” and swing to the Richard Wess arrangement and won a Grammy in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 rendition also won a Grammy.

Some liberties have been taken with Blitzstein’s lyrics, and Blitzstein himself made some changes in the process of translating. “Whenever he translated a line and came up a beat short, he threw in the word ‘dear,’ mostly just to take up the space,” according to Friedwald. “Dear,” of course, became “Babe” in the slangier Darin version.

Vocalists Frank Sinatra and Anita O’Day recorded “Mack” as did a variety of jazz musicians, among them saxophonist Sonny Rollins, vibist Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and violinist Stephane Grappelli . Friedwald takes particular note in his book of Eartha Kitt’s menacing version and mentions other stage revivals of the production and the use of “Mack the Knife” in several films. Dee Dee Bridgewater included it in her tribute to Ella in 1997, and most recently pianist Roger Kellaway, who was Darin’s musical director for two years, featured it on his Grammy-nominated 2005 CD Remembering Bobby Darin.