Imagine creating the only purely a cappella song to hit number one on the Billboard charts, then dropping it from your live shows forever because a presidential campaign used it without permission, and later becoming the subject of a false urban legend that you had died. This episode goes far past that one hit to explore Bobby McFerrin, born in Manhattan in 1950 to vocal teacher Sara Copper and Robert McFerrin, the first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.

The conversation explains why he waited until age 31 to release his 1982 debut, the two years he spent refusing to listen to other singers, and how Keith Jarrett's improvised solo concerts inspired him to turn a single voice into an orchestra through rapid register switching, overtone singing, and chest percussion. It then covers the 1984 album The Voice, the 1989 Gram ...