“Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin was five years in the making.
In the early 1980s, while walking in Manhattan, McFerrin saw a poster by Indian spiritual master Meher Baba with the phrase “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
“I was walking down the street in Manhattan, saw this poster on the wall. I wanted to remember it. I wanted to remember it all. So I wrote a song about it to remind me what to say. Don’t worry. Be happy. Started working that day,” said McFerrin.
McFerrin did not worry, and the phrase stuck with him.
Years later, during the fall of 1987, after his Spontaneous Inventions tour ended, McFerrin began recording songs for what would become the Simple Pleasures album at the Power Station in New York City and at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.
“On the first day of recording, we were in the parking lot coming to the studio, and Chris Tergesen, the engineer, and Bobby and I got out of the car in the parking lot and we’re talking about a movie called The Three Amigos with Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short,” said Linda Goldstein, McFerrin’s longtime manager and producer since 1979. “And Bobby had just seen it, and we were imitating the movie in which the three comedians used very, very clumsy Spanish accents.”
“So we were talking in bad Spanish accents and arrived at the studio, and there were two doors. One said, ‘Stu,’ and the other said ‘Dio.’ We burst out laughing. Stu, dio, hola, Stu, and open the doors and there was a piano. Bobby sat down at the piano and started playing this funny reggae rhythm and singing ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy in a bad Spanish accent,” said Goldstein.
McFerrin, who sings a cappella, said, “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.”
“It was never on the list to record ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy.’ The list had Eric Clapton’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and Buddy Miles’ ‘Them Changes.’ And that was enough. And that’s what we were doing,” said Goldstein.
“When I was in the studio recording ‘Simple Pleasures,’ it wasn’t even on the docket as a tune. I wasn’t even considering it. It never even came to my mind until, while I was working on some other piece and I got stuck, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it,” said McFerrin. “I dismissed the engineer and everybody and I went in the back and I wrote out the lyrics. I called everyone back and I sang it, and I think the whole thing took about 45 minutes. I didn’t pay much mind to it.”
The album was completed by early 1988 with 10 songs, including the lead single “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which was released in conjunction with the film Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise, on July 29, 1988. The film is set in Jamaica, and Cruise played a bartender who falls in love. “Don’t Worry Be Happy” was featured in the film for its upbeat and laid-back message.
“A radio station in San Diego, a morning drive station, played ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ just because he came upon it and thought it was charming. Nobody pushed it, and the phones lit up. ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ took off all over the world. It rose to the top of charts, much to the music industry’s surprise. He confounded the music industry,” said Goldstein.
“That song became a hit all by itself, all by itself. It was one of those things where it just happened to be released at the right time. People seemed to really latch on to that piece,” said McFerrin. “I did everything backwards. I recorded this tune, it shoots out of the gate, starts selling millions of copies, and what do I do? I stay home, you know, when I should have been, you know, according to the record company, I should have been touring like mad, just crazy, you know. But I had a choice of, you know, either touring like crazy and being away from my family or hanging out with my family, and I chose, you know, I’ve got some kids and a wife I never see, so I decided to stay home.”
The song gained worldwide attention from the movie and quickly became a No. 1 hit on September 24, 1988, overtaking “Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.
At the 31st Annual Grammy Awards on February 22, 1989, “Don’t Worry Be Happy” won three major awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Lyrically: Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin
“I wanted everybody to take a hold of themselves when things aren’t going so well. Everybody’s got that trouble,” said McFerrin about the meaning behind the lyrics of “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”
The song’s message is simple: Don’t let life’s problems steal your happiness. Worrying only makes things worse, so choose to stay positive no matter what challenges you are faced with.
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
When you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, be happy
Don’t worry, be happy now
Ain’t got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
The landlord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don’t worry, be happy
(Look at me I’m happy)
Ain’t got no cash, ain’t got no style
Ain’t got no gal to make you smile
But don’t worry, be happy
‘Cause when you worry your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
So don’t worry, be happy
Don’t worry, be happy now
Now there, is this song I wrote
I hope you learned it note for note
Like good little children
Don’t worry, be happy
Listen to what I say
In your life expect some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, be happy, be happy now
(Put a smile on your face, don’t bring everybody down like this)
(Don’t worry)
(It will soon pass, whatever it is)
Don’t worry, be happy
I’m not worried, I’m happy
McFerrin called the phrase by Meher Baba “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” “a pretty neat philosophy in four words.”
