McFerrin

When Bobby McFerrin performs his seven Perspectives concerts at Carnegie Hall this season, there’s no telling what might come out of his mouth. But one song almost surely won’t: “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” his number-one hit from 1988.

McFerrin probably could have lived off the phenomenal success of his most celebrated recording forever. Not one to take the easy way out, however, McFerrin decided to abandon the feel-good, reggae-tinged a cappella anthem, which won him four Grammys and catapulted him to celebrity nearly overnight, while it was still saturating the airwaves. Then he gave up singing altogether for a while. Twenty years later, he’s still not playing by the rules.

“It’s really affected people in very positive ways,” McFerrin now admits about his only chart-topper. “But it was all over the radio. It was on all the time. So I made a decision not to perform it.”

McFerrin wasn’t a newcomer when “Don’t Worry” broke. He had already been making waves since the turn of the decade, his four-octave range and stylistic versatility wowing audiences wherever he performed. In 1984, he’d released a landmark album, The Voice, a true solo performance in that there were no other musicians, and no overdubs—every sound on it came from McFerrin’s mouth, in real time. Then, “Don’t Worry” and the album from which it was taken, Simple Pleasures, changed his life.

But for McFerrin, stagnation and predictability are enemies to be scorned, so rather than continue in the vein of “Don’t Worry,” he quit recording and touring for a couple of years and pursued other creative avenues. He became a conductor, steadily building a reputation until he was receiving invitations to work with many of the world’s greatest orchestras. Every project took him someplace new: He teamed up with jazz greats such as Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, classical giants like Yo-Yo Ma, vocal choirs, and more.

Eventually McFerrin returned to singing, both solo and in countless collaborations. He’s still experimenting all the time. And although he’s come to terms with “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” that orphaned child of his, he’s still not ready to reintroduce it to his considerable repertoire. “Almost every concert, someone comes up to me and says, ‘That song really meant a lot to me,’” McFerrin says. “And I’m grateful for the opportunities that that one tune has afforded me. But I want to do more than entertain people with one hit song.” Clearly, McFerrin has shown throughout his career that he has much more to offer.