And, you know, of course, it's a complex thing. College, OH, a graduate of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's 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. Dont Worry, Be Happy doesnt make a lot of sense as a pop song, but it got a big boost from appearing on the soundtrack of Cocktail, a terrible movie in which Tom Cruise plays Maverick from Top Gun if Maverick from Top Gun was somehow a bartender instead of a fighter pilot. Don't Worry, Be Happy (single) - Bobby McFerrin He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He does this crazy solo performance on stage as himself. and, with collaborator. Bobby McFerrin: Don't Worry, Be Happy (1988 Music Video) Bill Irwin: Self It looks like we don't have any photos or quotes yet. Release Date: 1988 Awards 1989 - Grammy Winner . Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy (Official Music Video) The Real Bobby McFerrin 446K subscribers Subscribe 314M views 14 years ago #BobbyMcFerrin #DontWorryBeHappy #Remastered. The clip is mostly just ferociously twee physical-comedy mime stuff from Williams, McFerrin, and pratfalling vaudeville comedian Bill Irwin. Thankfully, the phrase didnt send McFerrin off to write his own Underture. Instead, he created possibly the sunniest song about survival ever written. 1984s The Voice (recorded during a series of live dates in Germany) jumped from that into unprecedented realms: It was the first jazz record performed without instruments, and even more crucially without overdubs. The Cocktail album went to #2 on the album charts and went quadruple platinum. Enjoy! And he can see in my eyes that I'm looking to him and he'll shepherd us through to some safe conclusion. Don't Worry, Be Happy Bobby McFerrin | Last.fm Around the same time that Dont Worry, Be Happy reached #1, George H.W. 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. 1988 Countdown #51: Bobby McFerrin, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" They danced wordlessly in front of the camera, playing off each other. "It's probably too early to try making sense of it, but it may just be that there was only room in the world for Robin at his strongest. I have memories of the title on bumper stickers and T-shirts, a slightly more mercenary echo of those Meher Baba posters. He was just a high schooler when he formed the Bobby Mack Quartet, and left college when he got a job as the Ice Follies touring organist. Don't try to share the stage with him. [17][18] It was also featured at #301 in the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts' 'Songs of the Century' in 2001. He died of a heart attack on Friday, according to the funeral home that handled his services. Clown College, FL, and received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1984. And I'm just going to put it out there. Bob Marley had been dead for seven years when McFerrin wrote Dont Worry, Be Happy, but many, many people evidently think its a Bob Marley song. {{classes.artistPrefix + ' ' + list.tracks[currentTrack].album_artist}}, {{list.tracks[currentTrack].track_title}}, {{list.tracks[currentTrack].album_title}}, 2023 Bobby McFerrin - Original Artists. Bobby McFerrin "Don't Worry, Be Happy" from Drew Takahashi. And sometimes people would fall asleep. Genres: Pop, A cappella. [6] He graduated from Oberlin College in 1974 and attended Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College the following year. Don't Worry, Be Happy | Music Video Wiki | Fandom It wasnt until December 1954 that the Mets general manager, Rudolf Hess, signed him to the roster. BONUS BEATS: Heres the bit from a 1995 Beavis & Butt-Head episode where the Dont Worry, Be Happy video precipitates a couch brawl between Beavis and Butt-Head: BONUS BONUS BEATS: Dont Worry, Be Happy makes frequent appearances in movies, where directors use it to gain easy irony points. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Instead, Bush went with This Land Is Your Land, which is frankly hilarious, but I guess Woody Guthrie wasnt alive enough to make any noise about it. If you search the songs title on YouTube, the second video that pops up is McFerrins song, but its credited to Bob Marley. The entire idea of a sitting vice president using Dont Worry, Be Happy as a campaign song speaks to a political climate that I frankly cant imagine, though I was alive when it was happening. "You don't want to sound fawning, or like press-agent puffery, because that's what most of us have been reduced to," said Irwin. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, has appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things?,[4] regularly appeared as Dr. Peter Lindstrom on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. When I was talking about the song with my wife today, she used the phrase toxic positivity. Thats pretty much what I hear when I hear Dont Worry, Be Happy.. To drum up excitement, the label was stuck sending a shirtless McFerrin doppelganger to a record wholesaler convention. IRWIN: It is not inviting writing. I think of it like this: Any given chart run has a certain chemical makeup, depending on whatever fumes (infatuation, joy, nostalgia, longing) our creaking capitalist system is belching out at the moment. Let them work it out between them. But the Cocktail soundtrack was much, much bigger. Heres the video: (Lil Duvals highest-charting single, the 2018 Snoop Dogg/Ball Greezy collab Smile Bitch, peaked at #56. McFerrin spend a good chunk of the 70s in the gigging life: performing for dance rehearsals, playing in lounges. Robert McFerrin, Bobbys father, was an operatic baritone singer who served in World War II and then became first Black man ever to sing at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Don't Worry, Be Happy. "[33], In 2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his appearance as George in the revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.[34]. "I don't know that I ever knew Robin very well, but he was always generous to me," Irwin said. Robin went into a warrior berserker mode. A cool guy with a cool family. On the track, McFerrin mentions a bunch of reasons why someone might want to worry homelessness, litigious landlords, lack of style, lack of romantic companionship and he advises letting all that go and embracing some vague amorphous bliss. In Canada, the song reached number-one in its eighth week. He has also appeared on The Cosby Show, Saturday Night Live, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Law & Order, and Lights Out. Bobby McFerrin: Don't Worry, Be Happy (Music Video 1988) - IMDb