Don't Worry, Be Happy

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his album Simple Pleasures (1988). It was the first a cappella 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, the song peaked at number-one on September 24, 1988, displacing "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses.

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, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

In 2024, the single was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background
Indian mystic Meher Baba (1894–1969) often used the expression "Don't worry, be happy" when cabling 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 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, which subsequently led to it becoming a hit single the next year.

Composition and recording
The "instruments" in the a cappella song are entirely overdubbed 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.

The song was recorded by McFerrin at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, using only eight tracks. McFerrin sang his vocal parts into his preferred microphone, a Neumann U 87.

Critical reception
Kieran McCarthy of AllMusic expected that the song would "probably remain prevalent in pop culture as long as humans speak English and play music." Pan-European magazine Music & Media 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-style vocals and a snappy rhythm, this Linda Goldstein produced US top 10 single is a novelty record of considerable substance."

Music video
The comedic original music video for the song, directed by Drew Takahashi, stars McFerrin, Robin Williams, and Bill Irwin, 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, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

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' '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.

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."

Use by the George Bush campaign
The song was used in George H. W. Bush's 1988 U.S. presidential election as Bush's 1988 official presidential campaign song, and it was used without Bobby 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.