August 5, 1988 - Bobby McFerrin and Don't Worry, Be Happy

Four days after my last release, a new artist briefly joins my library when singer Bobby McFerrin released his fourth album "Simple Pleasures" on August 5, 1988. I only have one song by Bobby in my library, but it was a popular tune that actually won a Grammy in 1988 and it's an extremely catchy and relaxing song called "Don't Worry, Be Happy". It opens with some irresistibly catchy whistling as well as some other backing vocals that form a very catchy main beat. The whistling gets replaced by the firet verse as McFerrin sings "here's a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note, don't worry, be happy". Every line ends with the name of the song and McFerrin's voice sounds smooth as he sings some more catchy lines. The chorus has McFerrin playfully singing the name of the song and inbetween each line we also hear some catchy "ooh ooh ooh" vocals that are very hard not to sing along to. They roll into another verse and chorus, but in this chorus McFerrin very quickly says "hey, let me give you my phone number. When you're worried, call me. I make you happy" in a pretty funny little part of the song. The catchy main beat just keeps going and Bobby continues to tell us of troubling things that we shouldn't worry about too much. It's no surprise at all that this was a popular song, as it's very laid back and has an easily repeatable chorus as well as the fun sing-along "ooh"ing. The music finally starts to fade away around the four minute mark and McFerrin does some light, funny rambling as the chorus eventually fades to an end. It's an undeniably happy song!


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