Do not worry Be Happy

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Do not worry Be Happy
Bobby McFerrin
publication September 1988
length 4:50
Genre (s) Jazz , a cappella , calypso
text Bobby McFerrin
music Bobby McFerrin
Award (s) Grammys
album Simple pleasures
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Do not worry Be Happy
  DE 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link October 24, 1988 (24 weeks)
  AT 1 11/15/1988 (14 weeks)
  CH 2 10/16/1988 (20 weeks)
  UK 2 09/24/1988 (11 weeks)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 09/24/1988 (26 weeks)

Don't Worry, Be Happy is the title of a song by the American jazz singer Bobby McFerrin . The title is based on a quote from Meher Baba . McFerrin's play was released in September 1988 and also appeared in the soundtrack of the feature film Cocktail (1988).

history

“Don't worry, be happy” card from Meher Baba from 1966

" Don't worry, be happy! “(In German:“ Don't worry, be happy! ”) Were the words of the Indian guru Meher Baba . He criticized u. a. that people were yelling at each other and therefore remained silent from July 10, 1925 for the remaining 44 years of his life. From then on, he used letter boards and hand signals to communicate.

In his song Don't Worry, Be Happy , McFerrin processed the words of Baba. His song, performed in the manner of a calypso, begins as follows:

Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry, be happy.
In every life we ​​have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy.
Don't worry, be happy now.

By means of overdubbing , McFerrin (as with the other tracks on the accompanying album Simple Pleasures ) sang all of the voices of the song, which was arranged in a cappella style. McFerrin imitated all of the supposed instruments in this piece with his voice and the rhythm with the snap of his fingers.

Recordings

McFerrin only needed a few hours to record the song, so Don't Worry, Be Happy became one of the cheapest number one hits of all time in the US. However, it took him several weeks to write the lyrics .

From music critics was Do not Worry, Be Happy entirely taken up mostly positive, mainly due to the convincing overdubbing was conversion. Numerous cover versions of the piece by various artists have been created to this day. The piece is also played in many films and series.

Robin Williams and Bill Irwin star in the music video . It's a little shorter than the album version.

successes

The song reached number 1 in the US , Germany , Austria and number 2 in the UK and Switzerland in 1988 .

The track became the first a cappella number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 ever, where it topped two weeks. In the other countries it was also the first a cappella number one. In Germany, the single took first place for ten weeks.

McFerrin won three Grammy awards at the 1989 Grammy Awards for Don't Worry, Be Happy . In the music video played Robin Williams and Bill Irwin with.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Sources for chart positions: DE ( Memento from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) / AT / CH / Don't Worry, Be Happy in the Official UK Charts (English) US , accessed on October 30, 2010.
  2. Quoted from Don't worry be happy Liedtext on Magistrix.de
  3. Cf. Scott Yanow Simple Pleasures (Allmusic)
  4. Mailbag: Mr. Noodle explained - Heldenfels - Ohio. February 2, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .