Known for his 2008 hit song "I'm Your," Jason Mraz covered Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday" as part of his newly released fifth studio album "Yes!" and it was not originally planned.
The song was originally an R&B hit in the 1970s before Boyz II Men's version in the 1990s.
"The cover song was a happy accident. We wanted to put an a cappella song on it. 'It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday' we recorded kind of as a research project. We let some friends hear it, and we kind of liked also that it had a throwback kind of thing," Mraz explained.
"The voice of an era, high school graduation, that song was in our blood," he explained.
For the "Yes!" album and tour, the 37-year-old Grammy Award-winning acoustic singer and songwriter collaborated with Raining Jane, who was the reason why there is an exclamation point to the album title.
"We added the exclamation point so people would think it was an album by a band. 'Yes' is how we got here. 'Yes' is what Raining Jane said when I asked if they wanted to jam. 'Yes' is what the record company said when I said we wanted to make the album," Mraz said.
"'Yes' is what Mike Mogis, the producer, said. So it was series of 'yes's.' 'Yes' is also a tribute to our friendship and how we got here. It's the mother of all positive words," he added.
From Sept. 19 to 23, Mraz will tour in Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan, The Aquarian reported.
On Sept. 17, Mraz was spotted in Williamsburg helping out community gardeners and school kids at La Casita Verde Garden with other volunteers by planting cover crops and building new furniture, Brooklyn News 12 reported.
Located at the corner of Division Avenue, La Casita Verde is a collaboration between the community gardeners and New York City Parks Department's Green Thumb program, DNAinfo New York reported.
"Brooklyn's got great spots where its potential could really be used to combat climate change, to help," Mraz said.
"If I hadn't been a singer-songwriter, I would have been a landscaper," Mraz said at the event adding he leaves a "wake of green in the air" wherever he tours.