"Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" is a song by American musician
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 ...
. It was released in November 1994 as a single, and was later re-released in July 1995 for his second album, ''
Scatman's World
''Scatman's World'' is the debut major-label studio album (and second overall) by American musician Scatman John, recorded after the worldwide success of his debut single "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)". It is something of a concept album deal ...
'' (1995). The song is described as "a blend of
jazz scatting,
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
, and
house beats". It reached number-one on the charts in at least nine countries and also won the March 1996
Echo Award
Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and it was set up to hono ...
in Germany for the best Rock/Pop single.
Background and release
Born in El Monte, California, Larkin suffered from a severe stutter by the time he learned to speak which led to an emotionally traumatic childhood. At age twelve, he began to learn piano and was introduced to the art of scat singing two years later, through records by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, among others. Larkin became a professional jazz pianist in the 1970s and 1980s, playing many engagements in jazz clubs around Los Angeles. His first known performance on a studio album was in 1981 on the album Animal Sounds by Sam Phipps. In 1986, he released the self titled album ''John Larkin'' on the Transition label. This album was produced by John himself, along with Marcia Larkin.
To advance his career in 1990, Larkin moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. From there, he discovered the appreciative jazz culture and started playing jazz gigs.
Scatman John’s Interview with Ira Zimmerman
', mnsu.edu. This was when he first decided to take a monumental step away from his insecurities and add singing to his act for the first time. His agent Manfred Zähringer from Iceberg Records (Denmark) thought of combining scat singing with modern
dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...
and
hip hop effects. Larkin was resistant at first, terrified of being laughed at and criticized once again, but BMG Hamburg was open. Larkin was worried that listeners would realise he stuttered, and his wife, Judy, suggested that he talk about it directly in his music.
Producer Tony Catania then received a
VHS from Zähringer. On the tape, he observed Larkin playing piano songs from Fitzgerald, Armstrong etc. He told in an interview, "The sound was a little crazy but at the end of this tape, I remember it like yesterday, he starts his scat singing improvisation. I was thinking at the moment that this is a great idea. I say to his management to bring John Larkin from L.A. to my studio and in this moment, Scatman John was born!!!" In two days, working with producers Ingo Kays and Catania, the new single, "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" was created. Catania added, "Those days, the sounds were always the same, and I was coming up with an old jazz guy that had the talent to scat, something like that would shock the scene. I was right, Scatman John was a huge success worldwide." After the success of his first single, Larkin adopted the new name and persona of "Scatman" John.
Critical reception
Larry Flick
Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...
from ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' described "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" as a "novelty dance tune", noting that it "has a giddy
Euro-NRG
Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. Thi ...
tone" and that Scatman John "bends his tongue to rapid, ear-popping effect." Dimitri Ehrlich from ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' wrote that "this
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
hit defines novelty: A chintzy drum machine pitter patters at a frantic pace while John, a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
jazz vocalist who has stuttered since childhood, frees himself from his speech impediment by scatting for three minutes and twenty seconds." In his weekly UK chart commentary,
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 ...
viewed it as "a bizarre part-rapped, part spoken, part-scatted dance hit performed by the enigmatic Scatman John who is almost as old as my father and really should know better. Still, a culpable hit it is and destined apparently for the Top 3." Pan-European magazine ''
Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later ...
'' commented, "Try to say that title in one go without choking on your words. Impossible! But Scatman has no problems scatting his nonsensical rhyme, a serious candidate for a novelty dance hit."
James Hamilton 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 described it as "John Larkin's jaunty
ragga
Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music.
Wayne Sm ...
scatted and 'I'm a Scatman' chanted Italian galloper". Debby Peterson from ''The Network Forty'' called it a "hellacious
techno-dance groove".
Chart performance
The song was very successful on the charts all over the world, reaching number-one in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland, as well as 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 ...
and the Canadian ''
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. Additionally, it also reached the top 10 in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden and the UK. In the latter, the single reached number three in its third 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 May 21, 1995. It climbed into the top 20 in Iceland and Poland, and the top 40 in Japan and New Zealand. In the US, the single peaked at number 60 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
, number ten on the ''Billboard''
Hot Dance Club Play
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...
chart and number 62 on the
''Cash Box'' Top 100. Scatman John was awarded the March 1996
Echo Award
Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and it was set up to hono ...
in Germany for the best Rock/Pop single with "Scatman". The single was also awarded with a gold record in Australia, Austria, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and a platinum record in France and Germany.
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" was released in 1994 and directed by Kerstin Mueller. It was also produced by
Ariola Records
Ariola (also known as Ariola Records, Ariola-Eurodisc and BMG Ariola) is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of the Bertelsmann Music Group, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomerat ...
. It was shot in black and white, and features a fractured screen with several boxes showing shots of John singing, along with various people dancing, miming and playing drums. The video was played in heavy rotation on music channels in 1995. It 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. The video had generated more than 158 million views as of December 27th, 2022.
Sampling
In 2021, music producers
Alan Walker
Alan Olav Walker (born 24 August 1997) is a British-born Norwegian music producer and DJ primarily known for the critically acclaimed single " Faded" (2015), which was certified platinum in 14 countries. He has also made several songs including ...
and
Imanbek
Imanbek Maratuly Zeikenov ( kk, Иманбек Маратұлы Зейкенов, İmanbek Maratūly Zeikenov; born 21 October 2000), known mononymously as Imanbek, is a Kazakh electronic dance music record producer. In 2019, he became kno ...
sampled the song and additionally used wording from the title of the song in their hit "
Sweet Dreams".
Accolades
Track listings
* 12" single
#"Scatman" (Pech Remix) – 4:53
#"Scatman" (Second Level Remix) – 5:41
#"Scatman" (Arena Di Verona Mix) – 5:59
#"Scatman" (Extended Radio Mix) – 5:06
* CD single
# "Scatman" (Basic Radio) – 3:30
# "Scatman" (Pech Remix) – 4:55
# "Scatman" (Arena Di Verona Mix) – 6:04
# "Scatman" (Third Level Mix) – 5:46
* CD maxi
# "Scatman" (Basic Radio) – 3:30
# "Scatman" (Jazz Level) – 3:41
# "Scatman" (Second Level) – 5:40
# "Scatman" (Third Level) – 5:46
# "Scatman" (Game Over Jazz) – 5:03
* CD maxi 2
# "Scatman" (New Radio Edit) – 3:21
# "Scatman" (Pech Remix) – 4:55
# "Scatman" (Arena Di Verona Mix) – 6:04
# "Scatman" (Extended Radio Version) – 5:11
Charts and sales
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
1994 debut singles
1995 singles
Scatman John songs
Number-one singles in Austria
Number-one singles in Denmark
Number-one singles in Finland
Number-one singles in Greece
Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles
Ultratop 50 Singles (Wallonia) number-one singles
European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
SNEP Top Singles number-one singles
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Number-one singles in Spain
Number-one singles in Norway
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Black-and-white music videos
Songs about diseases and disorders
RCA Records singles
1994 songs
Internet memes introduced in the 2000s