Written for “The Threepenny Opera” by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1928 in Weimar Germany, this was a droning song in strophic format about a hit man. It gets boring after the first verse. Ernie Kovacs used the original in his comedy blackouts by showing a manual coffee grinder playing it.
Walden Cassoto, a.k.a. Bobby Darin, wanted to be next great saloon singer after Sinatra. He only sang rock and roll because that was where the money was in the Fifties. The arrangement of this song gets around the problem of boredom by changing key at every verse by a half tone. It’s a pure Sinatra/Las Vegas production, and even Frank said that Bobby had recorded the definitive version. Ol’ Blue Eyes wasn’t given to high praise very often, but this recording earned it.,