Scatman John

Scatman John fused classic jazz scat vocals with driving Euro-dance grooves to emerge as one of the decade’s most improbable hitmakers during the 1990s. Although he clearly fit the novelty-act mold, few performers in that category could match the depth of his personal history. Born John Larkin in El Monte, California, in 1942, he endured a pronounced stutter from early childhood onward. Piano lessons began at age twelve, and exposure to vintage jazz recordings—particularly those of Ella Fitzgerald and his chief inspiration, Louis Armstrong—sparked an enduring fascination with scat technique. Throughout the 1970s he sustained himself as a working jazz pianist, appearing regularly at venues across Los Angeles; his first album, John Larkin, arrived in 1986.

Relocating to Berlin in 1990, he added singing to his performances of jazz standards and quickly drew enthusiastic audience responses. Manfred Zähringer, founder of the Danish imprint Iceberg Records, witnessed one such set and proposed layering scat vocals over contemporary dance-pop tracks. With support from his wife and from Zähringer, Larkin composed “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop),” an upbeat, instantly memorable track that recounted his struggle with stuttering. Issued near the end of 1994, the single exploded into a global phenomenon the following year and ultimately surpassed six million copies sold. “Scatman’s World,” a call for worldwide unity, appeared soon afterward and likewise achieved widespread commercial success. The accompanying full-length release Scatman’s World portrayed an idealized realm named Scatland and proved especially popular in Japan, where it ranked among the highest-selling albums ever released there by a foreign artist.

His follow-up, Everybody Jam!, repeated the pattern of strong Japanese sales, cementing his status as a major celebrity in that market; merchandise ranging from Scatman John toy dolls to soda-can tie-ins soon appeared. In late 1998 Larkin received a lung-cancer diagnosis and curtailed his schedule, yet he completed one final studio album, Take Your Time, which surfaced in June 1999. He maintained an upbeat outlook in both his music and daily life until his death on December 3, 1999, at age fifty-seven. A posthumous collection of jazz standards issued under his birth name, Listen to the Scatman, reached stores in 2001, followed by the retrospective The Best of Scatman John in 2002.