Born: 11 March 1950
Full name: Robert Keith McFerrin Jr.
Bobby was born in New York and his father, a well-known baritone, had been the first African American man to sing at the New York Metropolitan Opera. His mother, Sara, was also a singer. McFerrin spent a long time honing his craft and was influenced by the pianist Keith Jarrett who would perform solo improvised piano concerts. McFerrin wanted to emulate this vocally. He released his eponymously titled debut album in 1982 which did not make the main US charts but got to 41 on the US Jazz album charts. His first public appearance was in 1984 when he appeared at the Playboy Jazz Festival as a member of Herbie Hancock’s band VSOP II. In 1986 he would perform the opening credits to the 4th season of ‘The Cosby Show’. His big breakthrough came when his acapella song, ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ was included on the soundtrack to the film ‘Cocktail’ which starred Tom Cruise. It would give him a number 1 hit in the US and a number 2 hit in the UK. However, he felt that this ended his musical life as he knew and instead of actively building on this success, he sought other musical avenues, concentrating on jazz and collaborating with classical violinist Yo-Yo Ma. ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ remains his only US chart hit at the time of writing and he would see 1 further UK hit in the shape of ‘Thinkin’ About Your Body’ which peaked at 46.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 24-Nov-1988 | Don’t Worry Be Happy | 4 | 14 |
| Total hits | 1 | ||
| Total weeks | 14 |
| Biggest climber awards | 2 |
| Star rater climbs | 3 |
| Biggest fallers | 0 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 0 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 14 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 0 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 0 |
| Top 30 points ranking | =554 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =504 |
| Top 30 points | 309 |
| Top 20 points | 172 |
‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ was one of the songs on the last SA chart in February 1989.
SA Singles Charts 