9 Fascinating Studio Accidents That Made It Into Famous Songs
9. Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife
When it comes to making a mistake while recording a song, forgetting the lyrics must rank pretty high up there. It's one of those mistakes that can't be overcome, forcing the singer to start from scratch...right? In the case of Ella Fitzgerald, no. While performing Mack The Knife (a song originally composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Betrolt Brecht for The Threepenny Opera), Fitzgerald famously forget the words to the song, but masterfully improvised new lyrics, her performance not faltering for a second.
Oh, what's the next chorus? To this song, now This is the one, now I don't know But it was a swinging tune And it's a hit tune So we tried to do Mack The Knife
Those words may not sound brilliant, but it's the grace and humour with which they're performed which makes the recording so special. Fitzgerald goes on to detail how Ella and her fellas are making a wreck of Mack The Knife. The performance was so amazing that Fitzgerald actually won the Best Female Vocal Performance Grammy Award for it.