“Mack the Knife,” which began life in 1928 as “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” is a reliable evergreen, having been covered countless times by a multitude of singers from Nick Cave to Connie Francis to Ernie Kovacs (!) to Bertolt Brecht himself. It all comes from a Marxist remake of John Gay‘s 18th Century original satire on crime and poverty. This sardonic portrait of a murderous criminal retains an undying appeal, and it doesn’t hurt that you don’t have to be a great singer to put Mack across, you just have to know how. Bobby Darin had a huge pop hit with Mack in 1960, but using lyrics closer to the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht original, a post-Mick Marianne Faithfull gives Mack the appropriately sinister, world-weary treatment, as close to Lotte Lenya (Weill’s wife and the original interpreter) as we’re likely to get.
