Don't Worry, Be Happy is the title of a song by American jazz singer Bobby McFerrin. The title is based on a quote from Meher Baba. McFerrin's track was released in September 1988 and was also featured in the soundtrack of the feature film Cocktail (1988).
Don't Worry, Be Happy
History
"Don't worry, be happy! "(Don't worry, be happy!) were the words of the Indian guru Meher Baba. He criticized, among other things, that people shouted at each other, and therefore kept silent from July 10, 1925, for the remaining 44 years of his life. From then on, he used alphabetic tablets and hand signs to communicate.
In his song Don't Worry, Be Happy, McFerrin elaborated on Baba's words. His song, performed in the manner of a calypso, begins as follows:
Here's a little song I wroteYou
might want to sing it note for noteDon
't worry, be happy.
In every life we have some troubleBut
when you worry you make it doubleDon'
t worry, be happy.
Don't worry, be happy now.
By means of overdubbing, McFerrin himself sang all the voices of the song arranged in a cappella style (as with the other tracks on the accompanying album Simple Pleasures). The supposed instruments in this piece McFerrin imitated all with his voice or the rhythm with finger snaps.
Successes
The song reached #1 in the US, Germany and Austria in 1988, and #2 in the UK and Switzerland.
The song became the first ever a cappella number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent two weeks at the top. It also became the first a cappella number one in other countries. In Germany, the single spent ten weeks at number one.
For Don't Worry, Be Happy, McFerrin won three Grammy Awards at the 1989 Grammy Awards. The music video featured Robin Williams and Bill Irwin.