Bobby McFerrin - Don’t Worry, Be Happy: The Happiest Song About Being Sued By Your Landlord

This week on 1001 Songs That Make You Want To Die, we take on Bobby McFerrin’s painfully cheerful 1988 hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

It’s the first a cappella song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, a Grammy-winning cultural monster, and possibly the only song brave enough to tell someone with no bed, no money, no partner and a pending landlord lawsuit to simply cheer up.

The episode covers Bobby’s fight stats, the legendary “litigate” rhyme, the idea that worrying might double your debt, George H.W. Bush using the song without McFerrin’s blessing, the fake suicide rumour, and the moment the podcast officially becomes The Bobby McFerrin Four. The transcript lands on Southern beating Bobby by scrappy decision thanks to “regional pub energy and unresolved podcast rage.”

Also discussed: Cocktail, Tom Cruise’s sunglasses, bed thieves, Beauty and the Beast getting weird, late-night phone sex ads, NWA, and why “look at me, I’m happy” might be the worst thing you can say to another human being.

Listen now, subscribe on YouTube, and whatever you do: do worry, be sad.