Scatman John

"Where's the Scatman? I'm the Scatman."

Scatman John (real name: John Paul Larkin) was a singer and jazz/pop pianist famous for singing despite having a Speech Impediment which made him stutter. Although born in America, he was much more popular in Europe and Japan than he ever was in the U.S. He is best known for the somewhat self-titled song "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)". He died of lung cancer in 1999.

He is considered a very inspiring example of how someone with a disability can turn his life around. He turned his stutter into an advantage in his music as scat singing has a lot of repetition in it. He even points this out in his debut song.

"Everybody stutters one way or the other So check out my message to you. As a matter of fact don't let nothin' hold you back. If the Scatman can do it, so can you. Everybody's sayin' that the Scatman stutters But doesn't ever stutter when he sings. But what you don't know I'm gonna tell you right now That the stutter and the scat is the same thing. Yo, I'm the Scatman."

A profile of his work and life can be found here.

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Scatman John and his work provide examples of:

• Artistic License Music: There are trumpeters in the "Scatman" video, even though all of the trumpets are obviously synthesized.
• Clothes Make the Legend: His Nice Hat, which he wore in most of his music videos. His pinstripe suit and Porn Stache may also qualify.
• Cute Kitten: From "Everybody Jam!":

Louie even said that you could teach your cat scat.

• Disability Superpower: Had a stutter, which, as mentioned before, gave him godly scatting powers. He himself described it as "turning my biggest problem into my biggest asset".
• Ear Worm: Despite what the red dot next to this sentence thinks, a lot of his songs are widely regarded as such.
• Motor Mouth: Yes
• Nice Hat: As mentioned above, Scatman was rarely seen without his trademark hat
• Sampling: A bit of Louis Armstrong speaking and playing the trumpet is sampled in "Everybody Jam!", fittingly, as it is a tribute to the man.
  • He has also been sampled himself.
• Scatting: Well, duh.