"Don't Worry Be Happy' was a number one jam": the Bobby McFerrin thread

I noticed there wasn't a thread for him yet, but I found his cover of the Beatles "From Me To You" and am really enjoying it. So I thought to set up shop for him here.

I was a toddler when "Don't Worry" came out and that song, along with "She Drives Me Crazy" and David Foster-core stuff, defines an epoch in American pop circa 88-90 that never gets mentioned as being an influence on those that came after. Like, who cites "The Fine Young Cannibals" as being a touchstone? I'm sorry, Bobby McFerrin can't even keep the room in his own thread. So, him.

This is likely one of those things that anyone not around in the late 80s is probably seriously baffled by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo4OnQpwjkc

14M plays is almost as much as McFerrin's own 18M

This, "She Drives Me Crazy", "Kokomo", Los Lobos' cover of "La Bamba" were all part of my early exposures to popular music.

Mine too, and those tunes are definitely part of that weird era I am talking about.

The video for Kokomo is another "only in the late 80s" phenom.

I won a cassette of Simple Pleasures from the dj at my sister's 16th birthday party. I like a couple songs on it a lot!

You might not even have meant to imply this, but Fine Young Cannibals were not American.

Oh you're right. I meant to say the pop music of that era in America.

Simple Pleasures was the first CD I ever got. I still sing the title track to myself from time to time.

I fuck w/ this, for real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4BhsYbXwf4

I loathe this song even more now than I did when I was thirteen.

prefer his "Cosby Show" opening theme.

i kind of "like" this song without actually enjoying it much. i like the sound, respect the dude, like what he's doing with his voice, dig the kid's show vibe, the idea of such a thing as a pop smash. but on the whole, musically, it doesn't do much for me. to the extent that it's catchy, it's irritating as hell.

Someone correct me, but didn't George H.W. Bush'ss campaign use it? Four more years of Reaganism didn't need this anthem on the parade grounds.

It's amazing that almost 15m people have listened to the "Bob Marley" version.

I was at camp that summer. This song was predictably huge among the pre-teen set.

in keeping:

Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car
Got My Mind Set on You
Red Red Wine

not sure this era is so sadly neglected, tho. just going over a list of 88's hits i see "push it", "pump up the volume", "just like heaven", "fast car", "wishing well, synthpop from PSB, depeche mode and erasure; rock hits from U2, def leppard, REM, aerosmith & G'n'R. all of which have at least a little traction in the present moment.

it does seem to have been a weird, intersectional moment though. charts are full of track that seems lost in time, as though they really should belong either to the early 80s or to the 90s.

^ rewrite pls

"Don't Worry, Be Happy," "Got My Mind Set On You" and "Red Red Wine" among the most kid-appealing songs I can imagine.

this is an interesting time for American pop charts for sure imo and this song kind of epitomizes it

ha, i totally associate this song with my youth. i was 6 or 7 years old when this song came out. my dad really loved it and played it all the time. my dad's latino and since he loved it so much i always assumed that the singer of "don't worry be happy" was also latino and looked like my dad did, with wavy black hair and a moustache. many years later when i was in college, i worked in a record store and found out who bobby mcferrin is.

I actually just recently got into Bobby McFerrin's VOCAbuLarieS album from 2010. With the exception of some minimal percussion, it's almost all a cappella, with hundreds of multitracked vocals. There are some new age/smooth jazz aspects to it, but I find some of the songs to be really beautiful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b__9YQLJSZo

Title comes from Meher Baba, spiritual master to Pete Townshend, among others:
http://www.ebharat.in/sites/default/files/imagecache/140x140resize/sites/default/files/gallery/meher-baba-photo/1966-designed-dont-worry-be-happy-meher-baba-inspiration-card.jpg

why Bobby McFerrin will forever be badass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbHEHQQsjkQ

still kind of mad I lived outside of MN during his tenure with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra

the only version i've heard of this song is by
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/singing-fish-singing.jpg

he also did take me to the river. see.

I like to imagine I have images off and that your post actually reads:

"the only version i've heard of this song is by

""stalin"""

"Don't Worry, Be Happy," "Got My Mind Set On You" and "Red Red Wine" among the most kid-appealing songs I can imagine.

otm, and that seems to be a prominent aspect of the music being corralled here. deliberate simplicity and exuberant good cheer. when you throw in "kokomo" and the "la bamba" cover, the cluster tips toward kid-friendly nostalgia.

makes me wonder if the x factor here isn't aging boomers, the children of the late 60s and early 70s settling into comfortable middle age. they'd always spent a lot of money on music, arguably controlled the pop charts, and their sensibilities were being transformed by parenthood.

can easily imagine stalin being into this xp

Well speaking of these songs being kid-appealing, my initial exposure to many of these songs was not through their original version, but rather from this Smurfs album:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurfin!:_Tenth_Anniversary_Commemorative_Album

And on a side note, I find the Wikipedia article for this album rather ridiculous in how there are descriptions for what each song is about.

I like how for "Gargamel and the Smurfs" and "Smurf Town" are listed as "an original song?"

Soviet say your harvest late
It may have to terminate
Don't worry -- be happy

admitted plug of my own thread but, some related discussion here, Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

but on thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fgAjmRuS1w

^^^ his tribute to the value of mathematics, from Square One Television. Two thumbs way up on this one.

Also, the entire aesthetic of that video conveys something about what television 'looked like' at that point in time which I think has not yet been fully mined by retro artists and/or creatively bankrupt post-AnCo bands.

Seconding DJP's love for "drive," I love it.

the completely seamless, lightning-fast, dead-on transitions between all the registers of his voice is flat-out astonishing

I'm basically in awe

the entire aesthetic of that video conveys something about what television 'looked like' at that point in time

yes! all those bright colors. what a great video.

Saw him live a year ago: one of the coolest cats imaginable. He has a strong Jim Henson vibe, ie. celebrating childlike awe and wonder as an adult, and that Ted talk clip of him hopping around while the audience sings in unison makes me happy every time. I didn't realize DWBH was all a cappella until years later. I suspect people who hated it objected to the "politics" of the lyrics, which, since I have trouble paying attention to lyrics at all, never really bugged me.

yeah, the googly-eyed insistence on "HAPPY!" was a big part of my irritation when the song was ubiquitous

What were the politics of DWBH? I never thought that people hated it for political reasons!

There's a Paperrad DVD that was actually distributed through Netflix and on the end of it is this really rad trippy remix of "Don't Worry Be Happy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRBbyvoigg

oops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRBbyvoigg

^ a certain inevitability there

xpost I think the lyrics were read by some as promoting a blithe "think positive" message that encouraged apathy toward Reaganomics (trickle-down wealth) and all the standard world ills. I'm no expert on this, but I remember some discussion of this song summarizing/sanitizing the "me decade" with a stupid catchy tune. Plus the phrase appeared on T-shirts and bumper stickers as a cross-over slogan, like Live Free Or Die.

Interesting:

The song was used in George H. W. Bush's 1988 U.S. presidential election as Bush's 1988 official presidential campaign song, without Bobby McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, Bobby McFerrin (a Democrat) publicly protested that particular use of his song, including stating that he was going to vote against Bush, and completely dropped the song from his own performance repertoire, to make the point even clearer. The George H. W. Bush campaign then reportedly desisted from further use of the song.[8]

Also according to Wiki, the slogan (and its use on posters etc) predated the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NntmAj60O60

also this is fucking astonishing that it works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gjreHt0tRI

I guess it's supposed to be a Jamaican accent but it's a pretty shitty Jamaican accent because sometimes he sounds like the Count.

i genuinely love "sunshine of your love," which ends simple pleasures. and you know i'm tryna sing along. it makes me laugh with joy at the end when he's essentially screaming! it's so great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z36CD5iFWRY

also this is a jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7h05bnn_AQ

can easily imagine stalin being into this xp

― """""""""""""stalin""""""""""" (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Soviet say your harvest late
I may have to terminate
Don't worry -- be happy

― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Quality self-repost.

My totally square parents introduced me to this, but I actually really like the album he did with yo yo ma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ_xv5woLs0&list=PL6C0F607B90939733&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ_xv5woLs0&list=PL6C0F607B90939733&index=1

ok i give up trying to properly post a youtube link

don't worry be happy!

it was grace by yo yo ma and bobby mcferrin for what it's worth

This remains all time my favorite song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32DvEOCalAw

hey thats really great thx

Picked up Spontaneous Inventions for $3 yesterday. Was listening (with great satisfaction) this AM and perusing his wikipedia and found this interesting:

McFerrin's first recorded work, the self-titled album Bobby McFerrin, was not produced until 1982, when McFerrin was already 31 years old. Before that, he had spent six years developing his musical style, the first two years of which he attempted not to listen to other singers at all, in order to avoid sounding like them. He was influenced by Keith Jarrett, who had achieved great success with a series of solo improvised piano concerts including The Köln Concert of 1975, and wanted to attempt something similar vocally.