Mack The Knife / Bonus Track Mackie Messer
Music: Kurt Weill x Lyrics: Bertholt Brecht, John Gay

Ten years ago, Helmut Lotti heard the story behind Mack The Knife on the radio. "It has always stayed with me that the Threepenny Opera was actually the first musical in the modern sense of the word, meaning a musical with hit songs like Mack the Knife, or rather: Mackie Messer."

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer is a 'killer song' from the Threepenny Opera (1928) by author Berthold Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. This legendary creative top duo from the interbellum period owes most of its fame to this superb theatre play. Yes, theatre, because contrary to what the title suggests, the Threepenny Opera is not an opera as such but rather a stage play in which the actors can sing a total of 22 songs. They do not even have to possess a classically schooled voice for this.

Nevertheless, the Threepenny Opera is indeed based on a real opera, the Beggar's Opera from 1728 by John Gay. Besides, it was in fact to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the premiere of the Beggar's Opera that Brecht and Weill were inspired to write the Threepenny Opera in 1928. However, Kurt Weill does not take the original music into account; Berthold Brecht on the other hand lets himself be inspired by the original libretto.
The Threepenny Opera takes place in Soho, a working-class district in London. Knife fighter MacHeath, alias Mackie Messer, marries Polly against the better wishes of her father. Polly is the daughter of Peachum, the 'king' of beggars. More than once, MacHeath is put behind bars because of intrigues, convictions and insinuations, but he can count on a pardon at the end. Socially inclined Brecht intended to sharply criticize the upcoming capitalism with this play, but thanks to the swinging, click-your-fingers music of Weill, the public received it mostly as a sarcastic parody. This makes the play popular far outside German borders, resulting in translations into 18 languages. Mackie Messer, the opening song, is written shortly before opening night on the request of leading actor Harald Paulsen, who wants to add more depth to his character. Instantly, Brecht writes nine stanzas, of which only six will be retained for that first series of performances. Later on, whilst filming in the early thirties as well as for a new post-war performance in 1948, Brecht writes and rewrites a couple of stanzas.
In the original recordings on vinyl, Brecht himself sings along, while Lotte Lenya - Mrs. Weill between 1926 and 1933 and a second time from 1937 until his death in 1950 - is on stage during the first performance. Lotte Lenya - by now widow Weill -also acts in the Broadway premiere in 1954.
Her presence in the recording studio also tempts Louis Armstrong to add her name to the list of MacHeath's victims in the song lyrics: Lotte Lenya. Lotte? Yes, Lotte !

Armstrong sings Marc Blitzstein's standard English translation in the first half of the fifties: Mack The Knife. Bobby Darin somewhat deviates from this in his hit version of 1959. Historic versions of Mack The Knife are also brought by Sammy Davis Jr, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, The Doors, Ruben Blades, Sting, Tito Puentes, Marianne Faithfull, Nick Cave and many more. And now even Helmut Lotti. Lotti? Yes, Lotti!

That's Life
Music: Dean K. Thompson x Lyrics: Dean K. Thompson, Kelly Gordon

The first version is one by O.C. Smith in 1964. But this ex-musician from Count Basie's orchestra does not even come close to the 'original' hit song by Frank Sinatra, two years later.
That's Life, from the album of the same name in 1966, takes Sinatra, accompanied by Ernie Freeman's orchestra, to the top 5 of the charts, and that during the glory years of psychedelic pop music. With this song, Frank Sinatra again builds a bridge to future pop and rock musicians, prime examples being the versions by e.g. David Lee Roth (1986), Van Morrison (1996) and Bono (2002).

Helmut: "I absolutely wanted this song on my album. I just love the theme: stubbornly going through life, not losing face, but everything is brought with tongue in cheek. So the drama contains something cheerful at the same time. The singer is having a go at life, about life. That's Life is actually the ballad of the grouch. (smiles:) I recognise myself a bit."

Frank Sinatra's It Might as Well be Swing (1964) - recorded with Count Basie -also contains Fly Me to the Moon, which, like the rest of the record, was an arrangement by Quincy Jones. Brilliant Jones turns the original waltz from 1954 by Kaye Ballard into a swing by changing the rhythm schedule and by doing so, gives the song its final version. Frank Sinatra's recording gets to travel to the moon aboard Apollo 10 and a female South Korean cosmonaut sings it to her colleagues in space during a flight of Soyuz TMA 12. So literally: Fly Me to the Moon.
However, Portia Nelson first recorded it under the title In other Words in 1954. But the audience kept picking up just the first line of the lyrics, so after a couple of years the editors decided to officially change the title to Fly Me to the Moon. Johnny Mathis is the first to record it under this title in 1956. Versions by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Connie Francis, even Westlife follow. Also memorable is the tune of Fly Me to the Moon during the opening scene of Wall Street, director Oliver Stone's masterpiece of 1987, with leading actor Michael Douglas in the part of Gordon Gekko.

Helmut: "This is a romantic swing. It swings with a flute, a soft cymbal, with a little echo. It evokes a romantic night stroll, you gaze at the moon and sing Fly Me to the Moon."

Danke Schön is one of the gems by composer Bert Kaempfert (1923 - 1980), who was without a doubt the most important orchestra leader in Germany after World War II. During this second World War, Berthold Kaempfert is a Danish captive. Immediately after the war he tours with his first big band (Pik Ass) the clubs of the American officers who stayed behind. During that time Kaempfert also rewrites amongst others the folk song Muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus, which is also very successful in 1960 for that other G.I. serving in Germany - yes indeed: Elvis Presley - under the title Wooden Heart.
Kaempfert is also the first German to write a number 1 hit in the States: Wonderland by Night (1960), but mostly he writes tunes that turn into world successes for others thanks to English lyrics. Just think about Strangers in the Night for Frank Sinatra or Spanish Eyes for Al Martino. This Danke Schön also did not gain its success from Kaempfert's original version in 1962, but from Wayne Newton (1963) and even more from Brenda Lee (1964).

Helmut:"Danke Schön is very two-sided. The melody swings and is melancholic at the same time. Just like the story, looking back : how beautiful it was, but now it is over, thank you for all joy and pain. "

Helmut: "I wanted to write a song in Dean Martin's tradition, a song like In The Chapel In The Moonlight, or Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On. This fast 12/8 beat fits swing, the piano indicates the rhythm, there's a stop half way through and the close harmony choir gives you a very romantic feeling. All in all, Heavenly Match On Earth adds an extra feeling to this album."

First there is the novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood in 1939. This novel is translated to a stage play titled I am a Camera by John Van Druten in 1951. Under this same title a movie is made in 1955. And this in its turn inspires Joe Masteroff to the musical Cabaret, with lyrics by Fred Ebb and music by John Kander, in 1966. And in 1972 this musical is turned into a movie with Liza Minnelli in the leading part and resulting in no less than eight Oscars.
The story takes place behind the scenes and on the stage of the Kit-Kat club in Berlin, a city facing the upcoming Nazism and anti-Semitism in the days of the Weimar republic. The entanglement of what is happening on the stage of the Kit-Kat on one hand, and in the world on the other hand, makes Cabaret a comment on society.
Lotte Lenya plays Fraulein Schneider in the original Broadway production of 1966. The theatre version of the musical has more than one repeat and revival, for example in 1998 with Jennifer Jason Lee, Brooke Shields and Teri Hatcher.
But Liza Minnelli's version of the title song of the movie in 1972 is without a doubt the most famous one. The song is brought in the second part of this two-act. A potentially bisexual writer who loses his innocence and illusions in Berlin, tells singer Sally that she has to return to America to raise their future baby. But Sally has the time of her life in the German capital. He asks her not to be blind to what is happening around them. When she sings Cabaret in the Kit-Kat, irony borders despair and the song results in hysteria. Sally collapses.

Helmut: "Cabaret is a pretty sarcastic song, with a very fatalistic view on life: you might as well enjoy, because life is a farce. In a strange way it reminds me of what I did earlier in From Russia With Love: the Russians also party because they keep thinking about how fleeting everything is."

Travelling country musician Roger Miller is staying at the Idanha Hotel in Boise, Idaho when he writes King of the Road. He sings about the freedom of nomadic life (his life?) with some irony. In that same year 1965 singer Jody Miller sings about the other side of that freedom in her answer-song Queen of the House, in which she talks about the domestic life of abandoned women. But King of the Road produces a glorious collection of covers: from Dean Martin to the Ray Conniff Singers, Boney M , R.E.M. and Rufus Wainwright. The song also surfaces here and there as sound track, e.g. for Wim Menders' Im Lauf der Zeit (1976), Ang Lee's break through movie Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Into the Wild by Sean Penn (2007).
King of the Road is also on the sound track of Doug Liman's Swingers in 1955, being it that Swinger has a double meaning besides the musical one.

Helmut:"(laconic:) I am no chain-smoking, worn-down old fool. But this illustrates the country side of swing beautifully."

La Mer is one of the undisputable classics out of the history of French chanson. Charles Trenet, 'le fou chantant' with his felt hat, and Leo Chauliac write it in 1945, in barely 20 minutes during a train ride from Carcassone to Narbonne. Ever since, this song has lived a live of its own. It certainly also has to thank its success to Beyond the Sea, the English translation by Jack Lawrence, in the famous version by Bobby Darin. Nevertheless, the poetic ode to the sea in La Mer is only the background in the yearning love story of Beyond the Sea.
Charles Trenet's original, the version by Bobby Darin or one of the 400 other covers have been used many times for film and television: A Bitter Moon, Apollo 13, Bains-douches, Austin Powers in Goldmember, I Sognatori, Black Rain, The X-Files, Lost and even the animated movie Nemo.

Helmut: "La Mer is a true tribute to the sea, a picture of the sea captured in pure poetry. You can feel nature and life in the French lyrics. The English version (Beyond the Sea) is more of a love song, about a couple that is separated by the ocean. But I have in fact applied Bobby Darin's swing arrangement to the French lyrics. I'm a Bobby Darin fan and I think it works really well."

Love and deceit are the heart of the Latin swing in the Mexican Perfidia, a song by Alberto Dominguez from 1939 and a hit for Xavier Cugat in 1940. During this time Spanish songs scored exceptionally well with swinging big band leaders.
In Cassablanca, a white screen classic, Ilsa and Rick dance to this Perfidia in a nightclub during the flashback to Paris. But the song has had many performers: Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Nana Mouskouri, Linda Rondstadt, Nat King Cole, The Four Aces, Perez Prado, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ben E King.

Helmut: "Perfidia is the odd one out, with a slow start and a beautiful Latino touch. Besides, I enjoy singing in Spanish. Many swing versions of the original have stayed instrumental in the end. Therefore it was a challenge for me to keep the drama and swing at the same time. It worked surprisingly well."

Helmut: "When I sing In The Arms Of A Stranger, I always have the image of James Dean in the back of my mind, his hands deep in the pockets of his rain coat, while he wanders through the wet streets. The atmosphere has to be intimate, as this song is about what happens when you lose yourself in the arms of a stranger. When you are looking for comforting love whilst driven by melancholy, you might consider seeking this comfort in the arms of a stranger. But then you are looking for something that you definitely won't find there."

Ti Guardero Nel Cuore was originally the instrumental theme of the Italian film-documentary Mondo Cane in 1962. The movie is nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes and the composition by the duo Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero is in its turn nominated for the Oscar of best film music in 1963. Marcello Ciorciolini writes the Italian lyrics to the melody, which are adapted to English under the title More by Norman Newell.
Nat King Cole, Harry Connick Jr, Bobby Darin, Doris Day, Marvin Gaye, Roy Orbison, The Drifters, they all recorded More. Frank Sinatra does it as well in 1964, for his album It Might as Well be Swing.

Helmut: "The romantic melody gives it away: this is originally from Italy. But it's not surprising that it was turned into a swing. Romantic lyrics always get extra meaning when you let them swing. There's always romance around swing, and Italian is a romantic language. So it fits perfectly."

Fever stands at the cradle of rock 'n roll, in the original version by Little Willie John in 1956. Little Willie John was convicted for murder in 1966 and dies in prison in 1968. Two years later Peggy Lee takes the song with adjusted lyrics and it conquers an indisputable place in the standard repertoire of popular music.
It is written by Eddie Cooley and one John Davenport. Davenport - after his stepfather - is the white-sounding pseudonym of Otis Blackwell, the New Yorker who also writes Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Ball of Fire and Breathless, and Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel, All Shook Up and Return To Sender. In other words, Blackwell/Davenport reshapes the landscape of popular music in the middle of last century.

Helmut: "Fever is without a doubt one of the first songs I ever sang on stage, in Elvis' version of course. There still must be Revox-recordings from that somewhere. The way Elvis sang it, nothing much happens in that song. Peggy Lee, with her modulations and wind instruments, makes it much more exciting. We started as Elvis, but gradually made it bigger, larger, and certainly more feverish."

Helmut:"When you are aware of your place in the world, of the freedom you have, of the beautiful things and people surrounding you; when, in short, you are positive in life, others enjoy your company. You radiate happiness and joy in life which you can influence as long as you are willing to give unconditionally. The romantic choir is there also to make you not feel alone."

Mitl Gabler and Bert Kaempfert write L-O-V-E for the Unforgettable master of jazz Nat King Cole. He records it for his L-O-V-E album in 1965, which is released only days before the chain smoker dies of lung cancer on the 15th of February at the age of 45.
Daughter Nathalie Cole, as well as Frank Sinatra, record it, but more recently, more specifically in 2007, Joss Stone's cover and accompanying commercial clip for Coco Mademoisselle by Chanel with actress Keira Knightley put the song back in the spotlight.

Helmut: "L-o-v-e is extremely fit for a duet, because it is a tribute to love. It sings beautifully the praises and in all simplicity the vulnerability of love (please, don't break it), the exclusivity of love (the only one I see), the totality of love (love was made for me and you). I was able to sing this in duet with Clare Teal, a very beautiful singer, who has won the award of best jazz-singer for three years running in the UK. "

Helmut: "What goes around, comes around. Bad Bad Leroy Brown is a fantastic song by Jim Croce, about a tough guy who is for once at the receiving end because he is such a bad macho."
When Frank Sinatra sings Mack The Knife, he does not forget to mention that Mack worse than ol' Leroy Brown. Bad Bad Leroy Brown is in other words part of the heritage of popular culture. The song or the character appears in episodes of Friends, Crocodile Dundee II and Home Alone III.
Nevertheless the song about the seductive but mean fighter is author-composer Jim Croce's swan song. Croce constructs the foundation of some success in 1972 with his debut album You don't Mess around with Jim. A year later he gets his real break-through with his new single Bad Bad Leroy Brown. To cash in on that success, he starts touring and, after a concert in Natchitoches, he dies in an airplane accident on September 20th, 1973.

In many ways Reet Petite is a historic song.
Reet Petite was the first solo success for Jackie Wilson in 1956. Until then, Wilson was singing with Billy Ward & The Dominoes, who could count among their fans one Elvis Presley. However, not all fans are equally kind. Jackie Wilson is shot by a female fan in 1961, but survives the attack. But in 1975 he suffers a heart attack on stage, while singing Lonely Teardrops. He slips into a coma from which he will never wake again. Jackie Wilson dies eight years later, in 1984. Posthumously he scores again in 1987 with Reet Petite, thanks to the Levi's 501 commercial.
The first hit version from Reet Petite in 1956 also has an additional, almost unparalleled value in the history of music. The song is written by Berry Gordy and Tyran Carlo (an alias of Jackie Wilson's cousin Billy Davis). The title is borrowed from Louis Jordan's song Reet, Petite and Gone, but Berry Gordy invests the profits of his own Reet Petite (together with Smokey Robinson) in the foundation of his own record label, based at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, in motor town Detroit: the not to be underestimated Motown, stable of young, black, self-conscious America, of the Supremes and the Four Tops, of Gladys Knight & The Pips and Mary Wells, of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5 and so many others, right up to Erykah Badu.

Helmut: "Reet Petite leans towards rock 'n roll, it could have been song by Elvis Presley. Elvis was a fan of Jackie Wilson, you can hear this for example in the way he sings Return to Sender. Yes, Elvis has certainly found a lot of inspiration in Jackie Wilson.

Helmut: "I felt we needed a title song. And it had to be something like Rock Around The Clock. Because rock is a variation of swing, isn't it. And Time to Swing is also at the rock-side of swing. But we started with a relatively classical blues schedule and with that, Wim (Bohets) has invented the chorus. Of course it still remains swing, with the wind instruments, the shuffle, the boogie woogie piano. The global idea was of course: let's build a party. And that is the essence of swing."