Bobby McFerrin Quotes

• I do a lot of performing, but don’t get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Good, Chance

• I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time, Thought

• I grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time, Wonderful

• I like to use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Color, Audience

• But, if there’s any aspect of my career that needs attention, it’s writing.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Career, Attention

• I don’t want anything to get in the way of me and my singing. I want my mind as clear as possible.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Anything, Possible

• I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I’m still and quiet inside, I’ll begin. It’s very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Black

• I have a lot of albums yet to do.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Album

• I played piano as a kid; I still play a little bit.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Play, Kid

• I prepared five songs, I sang them, and he hired me. I started working about a month later at the piano bar.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Started, Songs

• I’d actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in School, Living

• I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children’s stories.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Children

  Tags in Poetry

• It’s not that I don’t love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Children, Love

• Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn’t there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Stage

• If I can bring joy into the world, if I can get people to stop thinking about their pain for a moment, or the fact the tomorrow morning they’re going to get up and tell their boss off… then I’ll be successful.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Pain, Successful

• My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Parents, Musical

• Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Children

  Tags in Happy

• Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time, Music

• My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Father

  Tags in Hard

• Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Mind, Start

Bobby McFerrin (25)

Birth:	11th March, 1950
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Lyricist, Music Conductor, Musician, Record Producer, Singer

About

Bobby McFerrin is an American musician and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy". He is a ten-time Grammy Award winner. He is widely known for performing and recording regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with other artists, from both the jazz and classical scenes. McFerrin's song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a No. 1 U.S. pop hit in 1988 and won Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors at the 1989 Grammy Awards. McFerrin has also worked in collaboration with instrumentalists, including pianists Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Joe Zawinul, drummer Tony Williams, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

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Births

• 1906 - Stanley Smith Stevens
• 1879 - Will Rogers
• 1951 - Traian Basescu
• 1946 - Robert Mapplethorpe
• 1955 - Steve Mariucci

Deaths

• 1918 - Wilfred Owen
• 1994 - Sam Francis
• 2010 - Sparky Anderson
• 1895 - Eugene Field
• 2008 - Michael Crichton