Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing

Not to be confused with SHeDAISY's Don't Worry 'bout a Thing.

"Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" was a hit single from Stevie Wonder's 1973 album Innervisions, which reached #16 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #2 on the R&B chart. The song's lyrics convey a positive message about taking things in stride and accentuating the positive.

It begins with an unusual spoken bit of dialogue, a forerunner of the "skits" popular in later hip-hop albums, in which Wonder portrays a slick character trying to impress a woman with his worldliness. " 'Cause like I been to, y'know, Paris, Beirut, y'know, I mean, uh, Iraq, Iran, Eurasia... y'know I speak very, very, um fluent Spanish -- 'Todo 'stá bien chévere' -- you got that? "

The tune is in E♭ minor, starting with a Latin piano intro. The song's second chorus begins with Stevie taking the vocals up an octave with two vocal overdubs singing the same line. He also sings two other background overdub vocals, mimicking a horn line with the Spanish phrase 'Todo 'stá bien chévere' which, loosely translated, means "Everything's really cool."

In 1974 it was covered by Roy Ayers in his "Change Up the Groove" and in the same year by The Main Ingredient on their LP Euphrates River. In 1992, it was covered by British acid jazz band Incognito, who took it to #19 in the UK Singles Chart. Also in 1992, it was covered by the group First Call on their album "Human Song." In 2005, it was covered by John Legend, produced by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, and included on the soundtrack to Hitch. The original version was also featured in Holy Man soundtrack. In 1997, it was covered by Hiram Bullock on his Carrasco CD.

A descending chromatic series from this song later appeared in a remix of a traditional Japanese folk song called Kokiriko Bushi^[1].

In 2005, saxophonist Nelson Rangell released a rendition from his album "My American Songbook, Vol. 1."^[2][3]

References