The Threepenny Opera
The song was introduced to American audiences in 1933 in the first English-language production of "The Threepenny Opera". The English lyrics were by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky. That production, however, was not successful, closing after a run of only ten days. In the best-known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of "The Threepenny Opera", which played Off-Broadway for over six years, the words are: