The Ballad of Mack the Knife (1928)

Week #12: The Ballad of Mack the Knife – originally called Die Moritat von Mackie Messer – was written by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht* as the prelude to the musical The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper). The play was a Marxist critique of capitalism. It was incredibly successful and showed over 1,000 times in Germany and other parts of Europe. An English translation premiered on Broadway in 1933 (after Weill and Brecht were forced to flee Germany), but it was unsuccessful. The show was revived in 1952, with an English translation by Marc Blitzstein. Leonard Bernstein conducted this revival and this time, it was more successful.

Still, it wasn’t until 1955, nearly 30 years after Mack the Knife was written, that Louis Armstrong recorded a hugely popular version of the song (listen here). Shortly after, a number of artists recorded it, and many of the versions were hits. Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald each won a Grammy for their renditions. More recently, strange and creepy versions – which perhaps try to reconcile the disturbing lyrics with the absurdly upbeat music – have been recorded by Nick Cave, Marianne Faithfull, and Michael Buble (Buble’s is no so much strange as it is just bad).

In addition to these more serious versions, there is a funny version from The Muppets in which Dr. Teeth attempts to explain the song to Sam the Eagle. Watch it here. I enjoyed it.

*You can listen to Brecht singing the original Die Moritat von Mackie Messer here (recorded in 1928).

I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me (1926)

Billie Holiday

Week #9: I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me was written by the prolific composer Jimmy McHugh (music) and the less prolific – yet still interesting – Clarence Gaskill (lyrics). McHugh wrote upwards of 500 songs, including many hits and several remaining standards – I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, It’s A Most Unusual Day, Let’s Get Lost, On The Sunny Side of the Street and many more. Gaskill, on the other hand, wrote far fewer songs and is responsible for what I think must be the strangest Louis Armstrong recording ever, Laughin’ Loue (listen here). He also helped created Cab Calloway’s classic Minnie the Moocher, though his authorship seems to be disputed. Gaskill’s work in publishing gave him an extensive knowledge of copyright law; this allowed him to copyright and claim authorship credits on a number of traditional songs such as Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful), The Farmer in the Dell, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me was first recorded by Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, though it did not become a hit until subsequent recordings were produced. Nonetheless, this fact did prompt me to feature the ukulele and banjolele as significant instruments in my recording. This song has been recorded by a huge number of artists, but my personal favorite is Billie Holiday’s* 1938 recording (listen here).

I hope you enjoy this week’s standard. Thanks for listening!

The Charleston (1923)

Week #7: The Charleston was written in 1923 for the broadway musical Runnin’ Wild. It was written by James P. Johnson, with lyrics by Cecil Mack (though the lyrics are rarely performed). Johnson was a well-known and influential pianist and composer who pioneered the stride style piano. Johnson also wrote the music for the lovely If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight). I should note that The Charleston is not really a jazz standard, but was an important song in the history of jazz. Perhaps my favorite version of The Charleston is Django Reinhardt’s: http://youtu.be/I_pD7oYJnJo (I can only dream of matching his intensity and skill).

The Charleston dance originated much earlier than the song, in the first years of the 1900’s. But it hit its peak of popularity in the mid-20’s; popular among flappers and in the speakeasies. The dance was considered quite provocative and immoral (along with the flappers’ infamous hair style and loose fitting clothes).*

My recording – following the majority – omits the lyrics to the song, making it the first instrumental I’ve attempted in the project so far. I found it especially fun to put a capo high on my banjo and pretend it was a banjo-lele; which gives the song an old-fashioned sound. I hope you enjoy it. If not, I hope you’ll still come back next week!

*The Charleston dance made a comeback in the 1980’s with the Kid N’ Play** video for the song Gittin’ Funky, which can be found here: http://youtu.be/romY2B39HPM

**Most likely, this is the only time in this project that I will reference Kid N’ Play, but the chance to use this reference once was just too good to pass up.

Someone to Watch Over Me (1926)

Week #6: Someone to Watch Over Me was composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin’s genius remains as a composer whose work straddles genres, drawing from and synthesizing jazz, classical, and folk music. George Gershwin is perhaps best known for Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. He frequently collaborated with his elder brother, the lyricist Ira Gershwin. This collaboration produced scores of hit broadway musicals and songs, including the musicals Porgy and Bess and Girl Crazy, and hit songs such as I Got Rhythm, The Man I Love, and Embraceable You.

Someone to Watch Over Me originally appeared on the musical Oh Kay! where it was performed by Gertrude Lawrence – a famous stage actress and singer. The song was originally written as an uptempo piece, but took on a mournful, longing quality when Lawrence performed it as a ballad. Since its debut in 1926, the song has had a long life. It has been recorded by countless artists and appeared in a huge variety of movies and television shows.

My version of the song is very minimal, consisting of a classical guitar, upright bass, and voice. There is no solo section and – aside from the verse – the melody is sung without embellishment. I was inspired by Chet Baker’s wonderful vocal track, which can be found here. Recording this one made me nervous, since there is no hiding any of my vocal glitches or errors, but I think the recording does capture the mood of the song fairly well. I hope you enjoy it.

What’ll I Do (1923)

Week #5: What’ll I Do was written by Irving Berlin in 1924. The song seems to owe much of its success to having appeared in several films and television shows. The version Bea Arthur sings on The Golden Girls is really quite stunning (watch it here). I love the haunting beauty of the melody and chordal structure.

In 2002, the USPS issued a 37 cent stamp honoring Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin is widely regarded as one of the greatest song writers in American history. The prolific composer George Gershwin called him “the greatest songwriter that has ever lived.” He produced a staggering number of songs – it was apparently his habit to write one complete song each day – and many of them reached the top of the charts. Some notable hits include, Puttin’ On The Ritz, I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, Blue Skies, Cheek to Cheek,  and Alexander’s Ragtime Band. In addition, he scored several movies and wrote several broadway shows.

I’m sure I’ll return to Berlin at some point during this project. For now, I hope you enjoy my version of “What’ll I Do.”