Mack the Knife

[Ron Obvious]

I wonder how many people know that that old classic song 'Mack the Knife' was originally a German song composed by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht for the Three-Penny Opera:

Mackie Messer:

Or here's a rendition by someone who can actually sing:

Doesn't that just transport you to pre-war Germany?

Oh, and The Doors didn't write this either:

The Three-Penny Opera, where every prospect pleases and only Kurt is Weill.

[elleng]

1. Me Me Me!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. I've seen that very interesting clip before

noting that Bobby Darin had some great hits with the adaptation of foreign tunes like this one, Charles Trenet's "La Mer" (Beyond The Sea), and Edith Piaf's "Milor".

This German tune was also translated into French and became an early hit of French singer Damia.

[Ron Obvious]

4. I didn't know that!

I like Charles Trenet, but I never connected it before that Bobby Darin's Beyond the Sea was originally Trenet's La Mer. Funny how you can hear both and not make the connection.

Trenet definitely belongs in that category of singers who can instantly transport you in time and place when you heard just the first few notes:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Ever see the rousing ending of Mr. Bean's Holiday?

It's pure movie magic!

[Ron Obvious]

9. Brilliant!

Wow, that took coordination -- brilliant!

Now that I now "La Mer" == "Beyond the Sea" I can hear it easily, but they still almost seem like fundamentally different songs to me.

[GoneOffShore]

10. That was so fun! Filmed in Cannes that scene.

Trenet composed the song about the sea at his hometown of Narbonne. We've walked along the seafront there in the winter. It's magical.

[Honeycombe8]

17. Yes, I have. Interesting movie.

Very interesting. Not great, but different and amusing and entertaining. I couldn't place La Mer...I knew it sounded familiar.

[Honeycombe8]

15. I'm still not convinced it is the same. Oh, now that I listen again, I see it is. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. Same melody - different tempo and language

Darin's American version swings more, like his Mack The Knife swings more than the original. Listen to one after the other. The sheet music for Beyond The Sea credits Trenet as the music's composer.

http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0088490&ref=google

[Honeycombe8]

19. I like BOTH of them. I have the Darin song, actually, AND the Bean Holiday movie. nt

[annabanana]

3. I knew it, but have never heard the original before...

Fascinating!

Thanks for the thread.

[Lionel Mandrake]

6. I learned that from Ernie Kovacs.

[Ron Obvious]

7. Never seen that before!

I never saw that before. Funny how one thing leads to another on the 'tinternet!

[baldguy]

8. Nothing beats the classics!

[kentauros]

16. That's where I learned it, too!

Ernie was great!

[datasuspect]

11. i can't tell if that first version is Kurt Gerron

he had a sad story.

German Jew who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt. He was very famous and appeared in several films before he fell victim to the Nazis.

They made him produce a propaganda film about life in Theresienstadt. After he completed it, he was shipped to Auschwitz and executed.

Kurt Gerron version:

[Ron Obvious]

12. I think my original was Bertold Brecht

I think my original version was sung by none other than Bertold Brecht himself. The vocal enunciations of singers of that era is rather different from today. I suspect because they started their careers by having to sing unamplified.

I don't think I'd heard of Kurt Gerron before. What a tragic story...

[840high]

13. Many years ago - saw

a production in the Village.

[Honeycombe8]

14. I did not know that! I've never heard that. I've heard the song

a million jillion times, seen the Bobby Darin biographical movie, Sandra Dee bio, and read a few things about the famous song. Not once did I ever hear it wasn't an original song. Then again, it didn't occur to me it wasn't.

Very interesting.

I don't know that Doors song, so can't comment on that one.