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The Hit Song That's Actually an Inspirational PSA

In 1994, American musician Scatman John released what would become his most famous song — “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop),” the music video of which is above. “Scatman” (I’ll use the shorter title) was a unique blend of house music, rap, and scat, the latter of which is “jazz singing with nonsense syllables” per Merriam-Webster. It’s a fun song to listen to in large part because of Scatman John’s verbal dexterity — it’s very, very hard to make all of those sounds come crispy out of one’s mouth in such a rapid succession. Most of us could practice the song for days if not weeks, and despite our best efforts, would still stumble over the words and nonsense sounds that Scatman John delivers so seamlessly. The song is so difficult to sing, the fact that it exists is almost magical.

But if you try to unsuccessfully, don’t come away frustrated. As he says in the song, “if the Scatman can do it, so can you.” And Scatman John would know: he suffered from a severe stutter throughout his life.

Scatman John was born John Paul Larkin in March 1942, and his stutter influenced his development at an early age. In a video of compilation of interviews, Larkin recounted a story from the sixth grade, “I was to stand up in front of a classroom and try to recite a current event that was going on at that time. I got up in the classroom and broke out in tears and cried and went back to my seat. I could not get the first word out. “ At age 12, he learned to play the piano in large part because of his impediment; as he told the Los Angeles Times, he “hid behind [the] piano because [he] was scared to speak.” Over the course of his late childhood and into his early adulthood, the piano — and music generally — became increasingly important to his ability to express himself and his life overall. And while that helped, it didn’t help enough. In an interview with Advance for Speech Pathologists and Audiologists Magazine, he confessed that “I had so much shame behind stuttering that I nearly destroyed myself with drugs and alcohol until 1987 when I got sober.” Stuttering defined his existence.

He pieced together a career as a jazz pianist with mixed success, and along the way, he learned about scat — and found that he was good at it. “Scatting,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “gave me a way to stutter freely.” In 1984, per the Times, he “added singing to his act, while entertaining on a cruise ship. His scatting won applause, which gave him enough confidence to begin singing at all his performances.” He still couldn’t talk without the stutter popping up here or there, but when he added music to the equation, he was exceptionally eloquent. His agent, looking for a way to differentiate John from other jazz musicians, suggested John try a mix of rap and scat — a recipe that turned out to be successful. RCA, the record label, agreed to record and release his first song.

But “Scatman,” the song, wasn’t born quite yet. His wife, Judy, had been encouraging him to be open about his stutter — it was part of who he was, but it didn’t define him. And when it came to the lyrics of “Scatman,” John ultimately agreed. As he told Advance (the magazine linked above), “I turned to my wife and said that I had to put this our there (because) if by some fluke it did become a hit and I had to do radio and TV, I wanted it to be known that I am a stutterer. It was more or less for a self-serving purpose: to make it easier for me. When I go out there, maybe they will remember that they are expecting me to stutter. This is a change from that horrible idea of ‘Don't Stutter!’”

As a result, the lyrics of the song read like a public service message, reminding everyone to take a “yes I can!” attitude. Mixed in with copious amounts of nonsense sounds is the following refrain:

The song wasn’t an overnight success but it did perform well, topping charts throughout Europe and dance charts globally. It has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its release and has also survived the test of time; you’ll still hear it played two decades later. But the commercial success of the song is not it’s true triumph. As Larkin told Advance magazine, the song and his other work turn his life around. “I was a victim of my stuttering. Today I'm not the victim anymore. It doesn't sabotage my life anymore. If you are open about your stuttering, it is kind of attractive.”

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More About Stuttering

Today’s Bonus fact: Bo Jackson was one of the most well-known athletes in the late 1980s, in large part because he was awesome: he was an All-Pro NFL player and also an All-Star Major League Baseball player, which is, well, incredible. In 1989, Nike came out with an ad campaign called “Bo Knows,” featuring him as an extreme sports polymath, excelling at everything from baseball and football to basketball, tennis, running, and more (but not hockey or playing guitar). The ad refers to Jackson in the third person because Jackson often referred to himself in the third person. The reason? He suffered from a stutter. As ESPN reported, “the true reason he referred to himself in the third person, according to those who knew him as a young man, is that his stutter made it difficult for him to say ‘I.’”

From the Archives: The Silencer: How a treatment used to help those with stuttering problems can also be weaponized.

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And thanks! — Dan