Scatman John

After working as a jazz pianist for the better part of two decades, John Paul Larkin rebranded himself as Scatman John, a scat-singing dance artist whose biggest hit — the mid-'90s single "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" — topped the charts in 11 different countries. He was born in El Monte, California, on March 13, 1942, and grew up with a debilitating stutter. Turning to jazz music as a means of expression, he moved to Los Angeles and began playing in piano clubs throughout the 1970s and 1980s. After releasing a debut album, John Larkin, under his birth name in 1986, he moved to Berlin and began combining scat singing with Eurodance, electronica, and pop influences during the 1990s. The combination proved to be an unexpected hit. "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" became a global hit in 1995, turning Larkin into a pop star at 53 years old. He adopted the persona of Scatman John and released the follow-up hit "Scatman's World," which — like the song that preceded it — went to Number 1 in Belgium, France, and several other European countries. Both singles also appeared on the full-length Scatman's World, which peaked at Number 2 in Japan and Number 1 in Finland upon its 1995 release. Although 1996's Everybody Jam! wasn't nearly as popular as its predecessor, it maintained Scatman John's success in Japan, where the album reached Number 17. Take Your Time followed in 1999 and was the final record to be released during Scatman John's lifetime, with the artist succumbing to lung cancer on December 3, 1999. After his death, he was inducted into the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame for his contributions to the stuttering community.