"Scatman's World" is a song by American artist

Scatman John John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), known professionally as Scatman John, was an American musician. A prolific jazz pianist and vocalist for several decades, he rose to prominence during the 1990s through his fusion of scat s ...

, released in June 1995 as the second single from the album of the same name. It was the follow-up to the international hit "

Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop) "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" is a song by American musician Scatman John. It was released in November 1994 as a single, and was later re-released in July 1995 for his second album, ''Scatman's World'' (1995). The song is described as "a ble ...

" and reached number-one in Belgium (in both

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

and

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

), Finland, France, Germany, Hungary and Spain. On the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by '' Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately ...

, it became Scatman John's second number-one hit in August 1995. The song uses a similar, repeating chord progression to

Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon (also known as the Canon in D, P 37) is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue, known as ''Canon and G ...

, the latter follows as: I V vi iii IV I IV V and the former as: I V vi iii IV I ii V.

Critical reception

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

said in his weekly UK chart commentary in

Dotmusic ''Dotmusic'' was a music webzine that existed as a standalone website from 1 June 1995 to December 2003. Initially intended as the web complement to the UK music industry trade magazine ''Music Week'', the site was relaunched in December 1998 as a ...

, "Now he is back with the followup in pretty much the same vein. Without the novelty value of the first hit it will be interesting to see if this manages to top the Number 3 peak of its predecessor."

James Hyman James Hyman (born 1970), is the owner and founder of HyMag, a radio and television presenter, music supervisor and DJ. Hyman put aside his university to work at MTV Europe despite his parents' misgivings (partly because of his father's glimp ...

from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update wrote, "Currently number one in Germany and hitting hard across the rest of Europe, more novelty

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

from a 53-year-old former

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singer and pianist. Semi-social scat-raps reside over a backing track not too dissimilar from his previous ' Scatman' single as well as

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the release ...

's ' Go West'."

Chart performance

"Scatman's World" was extremely successful on the charts in Europe, peaking at number-one in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary and Spain, as well as on the

and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

European Top 20 ''European Top 20'' was a disk magazine and scene chart for the Commodore Amiga published by the demo scene group Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above ...

. It reached the Top 10 also in Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Italy (number 2), the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In the latter, the single peaked at number 10 in its second week at the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, on September 3, 1995. Outside Europe, it charted on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Dance/Urban chart in Canada, peaking at number 21. And in Australia, it reached number 84. The single earned a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

in Austria, France and Switzerland. In Germany, it was awarded with a

platinum record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Scatman's World" was directed by Zowie Broach. It begins with a news reporter standing "outside the world of Scatman" and declaring how people appear happy upon leaving such an establishment. He turns to a young boy and asks why he is visiting, only for the boy to declare that he is bored and that there is nothing to do; confusing him. The footage cuts to the young boy suddenly submerged in water as he sees

, who stands in front of many backgrounds in different locations (through

chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

), as he sings about the problems of the world, and invites the viewer to join him in his fantasy world called Scatland. There are locations in London including

Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

and

Oxford Circus Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash, ...

. The song expresses hope and satirises the divide in the modern world between cultures and race. The video was later published on Scatman John's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel in November 2013. It has amassed more than 20.9 million views as of June 2022.

Track listings

* CD1, Europe #"Scatman's World" (Single Mix) — 3:40 #"Scatman's World" (Club Mix) — 5:54 #"Scatman's World" (House Mix) — 5:30 #"Time (Take Your Time)" — 3:41 * CD2 (Remixes), Europe #"Scatman's World" (Dance Remix) — 5:57 #"Scatman's World" (DJ Hooligan's Underworld Remix) — 6:34 #"Scatman's World" (Rave Remix) — 7:10 #"Scatman's World" (House-Dub Remix) — 5:28 #"Scatman's World" (Divas 70's Mix) — 5:49 #"Scatman's World" (80's Mix) — 6:06 * CD3, Japan #"Scatman's World" (Single Mix) — 3:40 #"Scatman's World" (Club Mix) — 5:54 #"Scatman's World" (House Mix) — 5:30 #"Scatman's World" (80's Mix) — 6:08 #"Scatman's Special Message for Japan Only" — 0:47

Charts and sales

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1995 singles 1995 songs Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Ultratop 50 Singles (Wallonia) number-one singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in Finland SNEP Top Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Hungary Number-one singles in Spain RCA Records singles Scatman John songs Songs against racism and xenophobia Internet memes introduced in 2019