Scatman JohnIt was 1995 and novelty eurodance was at its peak, when Scatman John (otherwise known as John Larkin) a stuttering jazz singer, complete with distinctive moustache, came out of nowhere to claim a top ten hit across Europe, the UK and of course here in Australia. Considered a novelty act, Scatman had a multi-decade career as a struggling musician under his belt and used the opportunity to create a rare live version of Scatman with his band, performing a blistering six-and-a-half-minute version for TV.
Without losing the cheesy keyboard riff, Scatman John adds a live rhythm section and absolutely owns the room. His rap is flawless and his band is everything you'd expect from professional jazz musos. Around the 2:50 mark he pulls out a ripping scat solo before cutting sick on the keyboard. Just when you think the whole thing is wrapping up, his guitarist gets in on the action, taking over from the five minute mark in a solo that would have Slash envious.
What it lacks in lyrical prowess, John Larkin certainly makes up for in musical chops.
Although remembered as a one-hit wonder, his album Scatman's World sold over a million copies around the world and Larkin was heralded for his work raising awareness of stuttering, with awards from The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the National Stuttering Association bestowed on him before his death in 1998 from lung cancer.
His first album was actually released in 1986, a self-produced jazz record which although critically acclaimed, remained largely ignored until his subsequent fame. After struggling to break through in America, Larkin moved to Germany in 1990 to take up gigs in Europe's live jazz scene, before his Danish agent created the plan to combine his scat singing with dance music. In an unlikely succes, Scatman's first single was a hit around the world, catapulting the musician to fame at age 53. The single was so big in Europe that the singer appeared on Coca-Cola cans.
A second album Everybody Jam was released in 1996, while a third album came a couple of years later, but by that time the Scatman train had well and truly left the station. In more recent years, Scatman has become an internet meme, egged on in 2019 when Mambo #5 hitmaker Lou Bega created a postumous collaboration track around the Scatman sample, titled Scatman and Hatman.
Showing that even the internet sometimes has taste, the track failed to chart anywhere in the world. Sometimes art is best left in its purest form. Vale Scatman!
