''Simple Pleasures'' is the fourth studio album by American singer and musician

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...

, released in 1988 by

Manhattan Records Manhattan Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a branch of Capitol Music Group. Company history Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall and was later renamed EMI Manhattan Records af ...

. The album was McFerrin's commercial breakthrough and contained the hit single "

Don't Worry, Be Happy "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by American musician Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his fourth album, '' Simple Pleasures'' (1988). It was the first ''a cappella'' song to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 c ...

". The song was featured in the film ''

Cocktail A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...

'' and peaked at No. 1 for two weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Don't Worry, Be Happy" won the

1988 Grammy Awards The 30th Annual Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1988, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Album of the Year went to U2 for ''The Joshua Tree'', and Song of the Year went ...

for Song of the Year,

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

, and

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...

. ''Simple Pleasures'' spent 55 weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the U.S., peaking at No. 5. On September 26, 1988, the album was certified

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. The album features unaccompanied

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

singing, with all parts performed exclusively by McFerrin via overdubbing.

Track listing

Personnel

*Bobby McFerrin – all vocals ;Technical *Linda Goldstein – co-producer *Bobby McFerrin – co-producer *Chris Tergesen – engineer *Gary Solomon – assistant engineer *Matthew La Monica – assistant engineer *Don Rodenbach – assistant engineer *Dave Luke – assistant engineer *Jack Skinner – mastering *Henry Marquez – art direction *Carol Friedman – photography

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References