"Mack The Knife" (Live) by Louis Armstrong (1959) —
Before Bobby Darin won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for his #1 hit "Mack The Knife" which he first released in August 1959, Louis Armstrong had already introduced it to the US hit parade in 1956.
"Mack The Knife" or "The Ballad Of Mack The Knife," originally "Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer," was composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their opera "Die Dreigroschenoper," translated to English as "The Threepenny Opera," which premiered in Berlin in 1928. (I know, right?)
Bobby Darin Version: Dick Clark had advised Bobby Darin not to record the song because he didn't think that a song originating from an opera would appeal to a rock & roll audience. Years later, in hindsight of Bobby Darin's version reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the Black Singles chart, and winning the Grammy, Dick Clark recounted the story humorously. Frank Sinatra recorded the song in 1984, but called Bobby Darin's the "definitive" version. Billboard ranked Darin's version the #2 song for 1959 and #3 on their "All Time Top 100" chart. The Darin version was also ranked #251 on "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone.
Simon Cowell (Judge on American Idol (2002-), between the years of 2002-2010, etc.) named "Mack The Knife" as the best song ever written.