To some people, Bobby McFerrin will always be the guy who sang Don’t Worry Be Happy. And he is that guy; he wrote and sang that global number one hit more than twenty years ago. But if that song is all you know about Bobby McFerrin, we suggest the following: Go to YouTube, type in Bobby’s name, sit back and prepare for a serious boggling of the mind.

There you’ll find many delights and some astonishing statistics. You’ll join the millions who have marveled at Bobby’s stunning rendition of the Bach prelude “Ave Maria.” You’ll find Bobby’s shockingly inventive appearance on the NBC music program The Sing Off, his unparalleled interpretations of Beatles songs, his collaborations with everyone from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to pianist Chick Corea to comedian Robin Williams, and his condensed version of The Wizard of Oz. You’ll see him conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and consorting with the muppets on Sesame Street. You’ll be awed by the way McFerrin brilliantly uses audience participation, most recently to demonstrate the power of the pentatonic scale at the World Science Festival in a performance that became a viral internet phenomenon, seen by over four million people. And that just scratches the surface.