This song is the penultimate track on the 1960 live album Ella in Berlin, in which she sings "Oh, what's the next chorus, to this song, now?
The original version of this song ends by twice asking the title character "What was your price?" after describing a young widow who wakes up to find that she has been raped. This song is the penultimate track on the 1960 live album Ella in Berlin, in which she sings "Oh, what's the next chorus, to this song, now? This is the one, now I don't know" after forgetting its lyrics mid-performance. In a stanza midway through this song, performers shout out the names of characters such as Louie Miller and (*) Sukey Tawdry as well as interpreters such as Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. The fourth track on Saxophone Colossus is an instrumental cover of this song titled "Moritat." The lyrics to this song were frantically written by Bertolt Brecht just before the premiere of the opera that it headlines, although Bobby Darin's definitive version uses lyrics that begin "Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth dear, and he shows them pearly white." For 10 points, name this song from The Threepenny Opera about a blade-wielding scoundrel.
The original version of this song ends by twice asking the title character "What was your price?"
"Mack the Knife" [or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"; or "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"; prompt on "Moritat" before "Moritat" is read]