"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...
, released as the first single from his album ''
Simple Pleasures'' (1988). It was the first ''
a cappella
Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
'' song to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. Originally released in conjunction with the film ''
Cocktail
A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...
'', the song peaked at number-one on September 24, 1988,
displacing "
Sweet Child o' Mine
"Sweet Child o' Mine" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, released on their debut studio album, '' Appetite for Destruction'' (1987). In the United States, the song was released in June 1988, topping the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 cha ...
" by
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...
.
The song also peaked at number 11 on the
''Billboard'' Hot Black Singles chart and number seven on the
''Billboard'' Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.
It hit number one in Australia and stayed there for 7 weeks. It was also a hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number two during its fifth week on the UK Singles Chart. In Canada, the song reached number one in its eighth week. One critic noted it as a "formula for facing life's trials".
At the
1989 Grammy Awards, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" won the awards for
Song of the Year,
Record of the Year
The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...
, and
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...
.
In 2024, the single was selected for preservation in the United States
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Background

Indian spiritual Guru
Meher Baba
Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spirituality, spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or God in human form, of the age. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following o ...
(1894–1969) often used the expression "Don't worry, be happy" when communicating with his followers in the West, and the expression was printed on inspirational cards and posters during the 1960s. In 1988, McFerrin noticed a similar poster in the apartment of jazz duo
Tuck & Patti
Tuck & Patti are an American jazz duo consisting of guitarist William Charles "Tuck" Andress (born October 28, 1952, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) and singer Patricia "Patti" Cathcart Andress (born October 4, 1949, in San Francisco).
Music career
Guitaris ...
in San Francisco, and he was inspired by the expression's charm and simplicity. He wrote and recorded the song for his album ''Simple Pleasures''
and it was included in the soundtrack of the movie ''
Cocktail
A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...
'', which subsequently led to it becoming a hit single the next year.
[Fessier, Bruce (1988). Interview. ''USA Weekend'', 1988.]
Composition and recording
The "instruments" in the ''a cappella'' song are entirely
overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...
voice parts and other sounds made by McFerrin, using no instruments at all; McFerrin also sings with an affected
accent, though he stated that "I hate to go so far as to say it's Jamaican. It was heavily influenced by Juan's Mexican Restaurant, which was just around the corner from the studio." "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is written in the key of
B major
B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...
.
The song was recorded by McFerrin at
Fantasy Studios
Fantasy Studios was a music recording studio in Berkeley, California, United States, at the Zaentz Media Center, known for its recording of award-winning albums including Journey (band), Journey's ''Escape (Journey album), Escape'' and Green Day's ...
in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, using only eight tracks. McFerrin sang his vocal parts into his preferred microphone, a
Neumann U 87
The Neumann is a poly-directional large-diaphragm condenser microphone. Originally introduced in 1967, a version of the is still produced by Georg Neumann, Georg Neumann GmbH. The became an industry standard recording microphone, a reputation ...
.
[
]
Critical reception
Kieran McCarthy of AllMusic expected that the song would "probably remain prevalent in pop culture
Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...
as long as humans speak English and play music." Pan-European magazine ''Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...
'' picked it as Single of the Week, writing "Cool a capella by this unusual artist. Uncomplicated music stripped down to the basics, but missing absolutely nothing. This recording will appeal to everybody who is on the lookout for something different. With the reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
-style vocals and a snappy rhythm, this Linda Goldstein produced US top 10 single is a novelty record
A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...
of considerable substance."
Music video
The music video for the song is playful and comedic in nature. Directed by Drew Takahashi, it features McFerrin, Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...
, and Bill Irwin
William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. ...
engaging in various humorous antics while cutting back and forth to McFerrin singing along with the lyrics, and is somewhat shorter than the album version.
Awards
At the 1989 Grammy Awards, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" won the awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year
The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...
, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...
.
Impact and legacy
The song is ranked No. 31 on VH1's " 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '80s" and also appears on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the 15 Best Whistling Songs of All Time. It was featured at #301 in the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
' 'Songs of the Century' in 2001.
However, in 2011, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was named as the worst song of all time by ''Village Voice'' critic Michael Musto, and it topped Q100 DJ Bert Weiss's list of tracks he would forever ban from radio. In the "50 Worst Songs Ever", ''Blender'' wrote "it's difficult to think of a song more likely to plunge you into suicidal despondency than this" and it lambasted its "appalling" lyrics.[Run for Your Life! It's the 50 Worst Songs Ever!](_blank)
''Blender'', May 2004. Wayback Machine archive of 24 January 2005. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
In late 1988, television station WTVJ (channel 4) in Miami, Florida, commissioned McFerrin to record a customized version of the song with lyrics promoting WTVJ's switch from CBS to NBC on January 1, 1989, as part of a complicated six-station affiliation shuffle in South Florida. The station's usage of the song was so infamous that when WTVJ's general manager resigned in 1993, ''South Florida Sun-Sentinel'' critic Tom Jicha wrote "The 'don't worry, be happy' era is officially over at WTVJ ... Practically speaking, it was over as soon as it started. The jingle ... never reflected reality ... there has been little to smile about and plenty to fret over."
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Use by the George Bush campaign
The song was used in George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
's 1988 U.S. presidential election
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1988. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's ticket of incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush and Indiana Senator Da ...
as Bush's 1988 official presidential campaign song, and it was used without McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, McFerrin, a Democrat, publicly protested that particular use of his song, including stating that he was going to vote against Bush, and he completely dropped the song from his own performance repertoire to make the point even clearer. The Bush campaign then reportedly desisted from use of the song.
See also
* Big Mouth Billy Bass
Big Mouth Billy Bass is an animatronic singing prop, representing a largemouth bass, invented by Gemmy Industries on December 16, 1998; sold beginning January 1, 1999; and popular in the early 2000s.
Gemmy Industries
Gemmy () is an American n ...
, a toy which "sang" a version of this song
References
External links
Lyrics of this song
on Bobby McFerrin's official website
{{authority control
1988 debut singles
1988 songs
Grammy Award for Record of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Cashbox number-one singles
Number-one singles in Australia
Number-one singles in Iceland
European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Cultural depictions of Meher Baba
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
A cappella songs
Meher Baba
Manhattan Records singles
EMI Records singles
United States National Recording Registry recordings
American reggae songs