Shaggy with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra? More natural than you'd think

Yes, that Shaggy. Mr. Boombastic himself. The reggae musician of the 1990s and 2000s who advised anyone caught cheating red-handed to declare “it wasn’t me.” Probably the last musician you’d expect to get onstage in front of a whole symphony orchestra and perform for 90 minutes.

Well, he did it.

On Wednesday night, Orville Richard Burrell, known to the world as Shaggy, sang and rapped his way through 19 selections in his show with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, “Mr. Symphonic.” And the crowd at Heinz Hall was wild about it.

After “Mood,” the breezy beginning to the show, Shaggy welcomed the audience. “This is all new to me, so I’m going to feel my way through.”

“What I’m going to do tonight is I’m going to take you on a journey through Jamaican music. I should say Caribbean music, because Caribbean music has a lot of influence on pop culture.” Then he introduced one of his earliest hits, “Boombastic.”

The song climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in in 1996. Listening to the studio version, it’s hard to imagine arranging it for an orchestra, but it sounded surprisingly grandiose when played through so many instruments. Drummer Shaun Courie Darson was having a lot of fun — almost as much fun as Shaggy himself, who proceeded to strut, shake and swagger all over the stage.

Maybe the coolest thing about this concert was how much Shaggy came to teach us. At one point he referred to the show as “edutainment,” and he wasn’t kidding. Between each song was a mini history lesson about Jamaican music, highlighting some of the revolutionary musicians who made ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall music throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

In 1993, he covered a 1958 Folkes Brothers ska song called “Oh Carolina,” and he performed it on Wednesday night with the symphony.

On both “Oh Carolina” an the next selection, “I Need Your Love,” his three grooving backup singers really hit their stride. Tamara Barnes, Carl Lee Scharschmidt and Amber Lee enhanced the call-and-response vocals that Shaggy provided in his distinctive accent.

There were some surprises in the setlist, but somehow they all made sense in the end. Before singing classic Frank Sinatra tune “That’s Life” — with both incredible panache and melancholy — Shaggy told a story about how he was encouraged to Caribbean-ify Sinatra by the one and only Sting on a trip to Norway. Shaggy and Sting collaborated on Grammy Award-winning 2018 album “44/876.” The bouncy arrangement of “That’s Life” that the orchestra played heavily featured the enthusiastic horn section.

After bringing artists Yellowman and Toots and the Maytals (the latter a favorite of his grandmother’s) to the forefront with a pair of songs, he sang “A Love I Can Feel” and “Strength of a Woman,” both big crowd pleasers that featured his butter-smooth vocals and some delicate melodies from the woodwinds. Before “Strength of a Woman,” Shaggy pointed out that March is Women’s History Month and gestured to his wife and mother-in-law, both of whom were in the audience.

Introducing 2001 Billboard number one hit “Angel,” Shaggy talked about getting his music played on the radio by making it a hybrid of Caribbean music, rock and R&B. “We did that with this particular song, we took Juice Newton, ‘Angel of the Morning,’ and Steve Miller’s ‘The Joker.’”

The crowd went insane for “Angel,” to the point that it was hard to hear Scharschmidt’s beautiful vocal performance over the singing from the seats. But the drums and horns wouldn’t be ignored.

“Luv Me Luv Me” had Shaggy rapping fast under fiery orange lights and accompanied by rhythmic claps from the audience. “Keepin’ It Real” was a highlight of the night, bright and sunny with a perfect layering of all the orchestra’s sections and the warbling background vocalists.

Then there was a seismic shift with the intense “Why Me Lord?” which featured ominous woodwinds, dark horns and Shaggy’s voice gaining more and more desperation as the drums thrummed to a heightened finale.

Next he talked about Peter Tosh, the third of the core members of Bob Marley’s The Wailers. “He was a rebel,” he said. “This is one of my favorites of his.” He played “Buk-In-Hamm Palace,” which let the xylophone shine and had a dancey disco feel.

I would’ve never in a million years made the connection between Shaggy and Bill Withers, but when the familiar bass beat of “Ain’t No Sunshine” started and he began to sing in his deep patois, it made perfect sense. The mournful ballad gave the violin the spotlight, as well as Shaggy’s pained vocals — he’s great at emoting with his voice.

After “Church Heathen,” he covered one more familiar song, Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” from 1982. “This brother is a Caribbean legend. We pay tribute to him because he was one of the first to actually own all of his intellectual property and to own all his own masters.”

It’s another song that may seem too electronic to translate to an orchestral setting, but PSO really made it work, thanks to a trilling flute that organically replaced synthesizers and colorful stage lights.

There was never any question what Shaggy would pull out for the grand finale, and everyone was on their feet and singing at the top of their lungs for the 2000 No. 1 hit “It Wasn’t Me.” He was having the time of his life, dancing around onstage as the orchestra spun out the mellow-but-dramatic tune of the infidelity anthem. I can’t imagine there was a face not sporting a smile in the whole hall as Shaggy bade the audience goodnight and thanked the orchestra.

They deserved thanking. The musicians nailed every song under the capable conducting of Moon Doh. With such novel arrangements, plenty of great facts and an unusual-but-delightful pairing of hits and history, Shaggy and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra knocked it out of the park with this performance.