"To Be or Not to Be" (also known as "The Hitler Rap") is a song recorded by

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began h ...

in 1983 for

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

. The song appeared on the soundtrack album for the movie of the same name. It was derived from the

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

show within the film but did not appear within it. It also echoes Brooks' 1967 film '' The Producers'', with the lines "Don't be stupid, be a smarty. Come and join the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

," taken from the song "

Springtime for Hitler ''Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden'' is a fictional musical in Mel Brooks' 1967 film '' The Producers'', as well as the stage musical adaptation of the movie, and the 2005 movie adaptation of the musical. It ...

". In the accompanying music video, Mel Brooks is dressed like

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and raps about the key events in Hitler's life in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The ending makes reference to Hitler's alleged escape to Argentina at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. While having limited success in the United States, the song managed to chart high in Australia and the United Kingdom, peaking at number three in the former country and number 12 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It also reached number one in Norway and number two in Sweden.

Track listing

* 12" single # "To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap) (Part 1)" – 7:43 # "To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap) (Part 2)" (Instrumental Mix) – 7:51

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Mel Brooks Songs written for films 1983 singles Satirical songs Comedy songs Black comedy music Novelty songs Songs about Adolf Hitler Songs about World War II Works by Mel Brooks Song recordings produced by Pete Wingfield 1983 songs Island Records singles Number-one singles in Norway