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1928 song by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill

"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" ("Die Moritat von Mackie Messer") is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper). The song tells of a knife wielding criminal of the London underworld from the musical named Macheath, the "Mack the Knife" of the title. The song has become a popular standard recorded by many artists after it was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1955 with translated lyrics by Marc Blitzstein. The most popular version of the song was by Bobby Darin in 1959, whose recording became a number one hit in the US and UK and earned him two Grammys at the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards. Ella Fitzgerald also received a Grammy for her performance of the song in 1961. The original German lyrics and music of the song entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.

The song, however, is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version on December 19, 1958 for his album That's All. Darin had performed the song in his act before, and wanted to include the song in an album of standards. The song was arranged by Richard Wess. Musicians on the song included Don Lamond on drums, Milt Hinton on bass, and Doc Severinsen on trumpet. with Tom Dowd engineering the recording. Darin performed with the song lyrics similar to Armstrong's version with small changes, such as using the word "babe" instead of "dear', and he ended the song with a reprise of the sixth verse instead of the first. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles Chart. It was listed as a Cash Box Top 100 number one single in 1959 for eight weeks. Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it would not appeal to the rock and roll audience; he subsequently acknowledged his error.

Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Quincy Jones on his L. A. Is My Lady album, called Darin's the "definitive" version. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 2 song for 1959. In 2003, the Darin version was ranked No. 251 on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. Darin's version of the song was featured in the films Quiz Show and What Women Want. The song earned Darin two Grammy Awards in 1959, for Record of the Year and first ever Best New Artist. Darin's version was also inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry at the same time as Armstrong's in 2016. In 1999, the 1959 release of the song by Bobby Darin on the Atco Records label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

On February 13, 1960, Ella Fitzgerald performed the song live for the first time in a concert at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. Fitzgerald, however, forgot the lyrics after the first stanza, and she improvised new lyrics, including name checking Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin. The song was included on the album Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife released in July. The song was released as a single in April 1960. This version made the US Hot 100, peaking at No. 27 in June 1960. This song was Fitzgerald's best performing song in the 1960s, and she included the song in all her subsequent shows. The performance earned Fitzgerald a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 3rd Annual Grammy Awards.

An instrumental version of "Mack the Knife" titled "Moritat – A Theme From "The Three Penny Opera"" was recorded by Dick Hyman, It also reached No. 9 on the Cashbox chart, as well as No. 9 on the UK chart in 1956. A number of other instrumental versions also appeared on The Top 100 at the same time: Richard Hayman and Jan August (No. 12), Billy Vaughn (No. 37), and Les Paul and Mary Ford (No.49). Billy Vaughn also reached No. 12 in the UK. Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded an instrumental version entitled simply "Moritat" for his album Saxophone Colossus released in 1956. A 1959 instrumental performance by Bill Haley & His Comets was the final song the group recorded for Decca Records. Ray Conniff recorded a version for orchestra and chorus in 1962 for the album, The Happy Beat. Liberace performed the song in five styles: as originally written, in the style of the "Blue Danube Waltz", as a music box, in a bossa nova rhythm, and in boogie woogie.

Frank Sinatra added the song to his repertoire in 1984 in an arrangement by Frank Foster; In the performance included in his album L. A. Is My Lady, Sinatra similarly name checked Armstrong and Darin, as well as adding members of his backing band. while Sting and Dominic Muldowney recorded it for the 1985 tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill. Other notable versions include performances by Mark Lanegan, Dave Van Ronk, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony Bennett, Anita O'Day (in an arrangement by Jimmy Giuffre), Marianne Faithfull, Brian Setzer, Dr. John, Ute Lemper, King Kurt, Bing Crosby, The Psychedelic Furs, David Cassidy (in At the Copa), Westlife, The Doors, and Michael Bublé. Swiss band The Young Gods radically reworked the song in industrial style on their 1991 album The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill as "Mackie Messer", Deana Martin recorded "Mack the Knife" on her second studio album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records. Robbie Williams recorded the song on his 2001 album Swing When You're Winning. Hildegard Knef recorded a German version, "Mackie Messer". Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja" (Razor Pete). Brazilian composer Chico Buarque, in his loose adaptation of Threepenny Opera (Ópera do [[Malandragem), made two versions called "O Malandro" and "O Malandro No. 2", with lyrics in Portuguese.