THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

460-Lotte Lenya-Alabama-Song.

1930-Has never charted in the UK, there was no UK chart until 1952.

Best Bit-At 2.09. It is to be hoped that the whisky is of a certain vintage, like the little boy, at least 16 years old.

The lyrics for ‘Alabama-Song’ were written in 1925 by Bertoit Brecht (1898-1956) and translated from the original German in to English by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann, (1897-1973) then in 1927 the lyrics were set to music by Kurt Weill (1900-1950) for the play ‘Little Mahagonny.’ In 1930 Alabama-Song was reused as one of the 11 songs all composed by Brecht and Weill for the opera ‘Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

‘Lotte Lenya was born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer on October 18, 1898 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, she died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 83. Lenya re-recorded and performed ‘Alabama-Song’ on many occasions during her life time, she first performed the song in the role of ‘Jessie’ at the 1927 Baden-Baden Festival performance of Little Mahagonny. In 1930 she recorded her first vinyl version of the song, and in 1955 a re-recorded take appears on her ‘Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill Album, Lenya had been married to Weill until his death in 1950.Brecht and Weill were also the composers of ‘Mack the Knife’ and in the 1959 hit version by Bobby Darin he name checks Lotte Lenya in the songs lyrics (see also best songs 43.) As an actress Lenya is probably best remembered for her role as Rosa Klebb in the 1963 James Bond film ‘From Russia With Love.’

‘Alabama-Song’ has been recorded by many other artists down the years, most notably by the ‘Doors’ (see also best songs 235 and 133) for their self titled debut Album in 1967. The bands lead singer Jim Morrison changed the songs lyrics in the second verse from ‘Show us the way to the next pretty boy’ to, ‘Show me the way to the next little girl,’ and also for the third and final verse as well, ‘Show me the way to the next little dollar’ is omitted completely. Another notable recording was made by David Bowie (see also best songs 807-440-334-302-209-186-118-47 and 5) in 1980, who had always been a fan of Brecht, his version reached Number 23 in the UK.’

‘Alabama-Song’ has three themes, materialism, despair, and illicit pleasures.

‘Oh moon of Alabama it’s time to say goodbye, we’ve lost our good old mama and must have whiskey or you know why.’