Scatman John

Scatman John ( born March 13, 1942 in El Monte, California, † December 3, 1999 in Los Angeles, California; bourgeois John Paul Larkin ) was an American musician. He sang and played music in the scat and jazz area.

Scatman John was stutterers. His trademarks were his slouch hat and his mustache. He became famous for his internationally successful hit Scatman ( Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop ). In all publications Scatman John mingled his scat singing with Europop and dance. He sold over 20 million records.

• 2.1 albums
• 2.2 Singles

Life

Scatman John was born on March 13, 1942 in El Monte ( California ) as John Paul Larkin. He grew up in El Sereno, about 20 kilometers from his home town, where. Even as a primary school he suffered under his stuttering, because classmates made ​​fun of him and aped him. A started therapy, he broke off because of feelings of inferiority, he tried to avoid talking. At 14, Larkin began playing the piano; This helped him to compensate for his language deficits and to discover artistic skills.

From 1970 he worked as a jazz pianist, mainly in the greater Los Angeles area. In 1986 he released his debut album John Larkin; Today, only a few have not yet received it. At this time also began to be alcohol and drug abuse. When his partner musician Joe Farrell died in 1986 on drug use to Larkin decided to fight his addiction. With the help of his new wife Judy he succeeded in getting out of drug addiction.

The "birth" of Scatman John

1990 Larkin went to Berlin to further develop his career. Because of the marked jazz culture in the city, he continued to make music as a jazz pianist, in clubs, on cruise ships and bars, and later in Germany. Here he also precipitated the decision to involve the singing in his performances, also thanks to the great approval, which he learned for the vocal performance of his version of On the Sunny Side of the Street to the instrumentals. At that time suggested his agent Manfred Zähringerplatz by Iceberg Records in Denmark, to join the scat singing with modern dance and pop tunes. Larkin doubted only at the idea, but BMG Hamburg was in favor of the proposal. Together wrote with songwriter and music producer Tony Catania and he produced the song Scatman ( Ski -Ba- Bop -Ba -Dop - Bop ), the successful cooperation in the wider tracks and albums followed.

International success

1995, at the age of 52 years, Larkin became the star of the world. First stopped the sale of its single, but then she reached in many countries, # 1 on the charts; a total of more than 6 million records were sold. Scatman ( Ski -Ba- Bop -Ba -Dop - Bop ) remained his greatest success and his most famous work as a whole. It was followed by the single Scatman 's World, which could not quite match the earlier success. Nevertheless, far more than a million copies were sold in Europe.

Later, his debut album came as Scatman John, which also became a huge success and sold millions. He began a tour of Europe and Asia. In an interview for his album Larkin spoke so fluently that he was asked by a journalist if he had invented the stuttering only to further his career. Larkin was shocked and for the first time he was ashamed more for the flowing speeches as for the stuttering.

After the album Scatman 's World

In 1996 his second album, Everybody Jam!, Which in Germany had average success. In Japan, the album was much more successful than anywhere else in the world. Scatman John was there so famous that Japanese toy stores was sold dolls of him and see his face on phone cards and Coca -Cola cans. The Japanese version of the album contained five bonus tracks with the hit singles Su Su Su Super Kirei and Pripri Scat that of Japanese firms for promotional purposes (eg cosmetics ) were used. The Ultraman cult wave tried getting hit part of the success. For this purpose, a single called Scatultraman was published; The cover showed Ultraman with hat and mustache, his identification.

Last years

In 1999 he released his third and final album, Take Your Time. Despite health problems he was working on the album on. Later lung cancer was diagnosed him and begun an intensive treatment of the disease. He died at home in Los Angeles on December 3, 1999.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Awards (selection)

Scatman John got some awards for his work, including Italy, France, Poland and Hong Kong around the world. In Switzerland, he won two gold records for his singles Scatman ( Ski -Ba- Bop -Ba -Dop - Bop ) and Scatman 's World. In Japan, he was awarded Best New Artist of the Year International, Germany in an echo for Scatman ( Ski -Ba- Bop -Ba -Dop - Bop ) as Best single 1996 / awarded nationally and internationally at him.