Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is a ten-time Grammy Award-winning jazz-influenced a cappella vocal performer and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
... Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is a ten-time Grammy Award-winning jazz-influenced a cappella vocal performer and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
McFerrin switches rapidly and fluidly between normal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, effectively performing both the main melody and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of vocal percussion created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. McFerrin is also capable of throat singing[citation needed] — as used in his song "Drive" from the 2005 DVD Live in Montreal — a practice common in central Asian regions such as Tuva and Tibet in which the singer excites the natural overtones from the fundamental vocal pitch, producing a two-or three-part chord of notes from one voice.
A notable document of McFerrin's approach to singing is his 1984 album The Voice, the first solo vocal jazz album recorded with no accompaniment or overdubbing.[3]