'Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer', more commonly known as 'Mack the Knife', is a song by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht from their play 'The Threepenny Opera', which was first performed in Berlin in 1928. This song was hastily written before opening night for the lead actor, who complained that his character didn't have a good introduction. Mack the Knife quickly became a jazz standard, and has now been covered countless times by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Robbie Williams, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald.