What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[Rev. Rye]

After watching Todd in the Shadows talk about "Don't Worry Be Happy", here are three things I learned about the song:

• Somehow, it didn't register to me until Todd mentioned it that there were no instruments whatsoever used on the song. It's literally just his voice and his body percussion. It's also worth noting that, even before that, he recorded multiple entire albums the same way, becoming the first jazz artist to tour with neither instruments nor other singers. Though I suspect there had to be a looper in there somewhere.
  
• The strange accent he uses for the song is not actually Jamaican. It's actually supposed to be "heavily influenced by Juan's Mexican Restaurant, which was just around the corner from the studio."
  
• While, as a Ravinia regular, I'm aware that he's long since pivoted to conducting classical music, what surprised me is that he's shied away from performing the song for so long that he no longer remembers the lyrics to the verses.