Scatman's 1994 hit finds a new generation after inspiring video about his stutter resurfaces

Perhaps the world wasn’t truly ready for Scatman John, the bespectacled jazz-scat singer armed with dance-pop beats and a message of unity. But for a brief period in the mid-90s, he nearly took over anyway. On paper, his breakout debut single, 1994’s "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)," seemed like a tough sell in an era of woolly post-grunge and bass-booming G-funk and squeaky-clean R&B balladry. But he still managed to worm his way onto the Billboard charts and into the hearts of fans charmed by his unlikely success story—including the fact that scat-singing helped him manage a lifelong stutter.

Featured on his debut album, 1995’s Scatman’s World, "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" was a hit in numerous countries, even reaching No. 3 on the U.K. charts—a remarkable feat, given its unusual composition of scat-singing and pseudo-rapping. But none of the artist’s subsequent work achieved the same cultural impact, and, sadly, Scatman John died in 1999 at age 57, after being diagnosed with lung cancer. It’s rare to hear his signature song on the radio these days, though you do see it mentioned occasionally online—in 2017, for example, it appeared on Buzzfeed’s feature "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s." More recently, a resurfaced Scatman interview went viral on social media, introducing the track—and the meaning behind it—to a new audience.

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"The stutter and the scat is the same thing"

The clip dates back to a 1995 live performance on the Norwegian TV show Rondo, where Scatman John played a thrilling, jazz-fusion-styled version of the song. The musician, introduced as "the most famous stutterer in the world," also talked about the lyrics, which read in part, "Everybody stutters one way or the other / So check out my message to you / As a matter of fact, a-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."

"Stuttering is what taught me how to scat-sing because I had to learn how to pronounce my words," he says in the footage. "I’ll take a stutter into a scat-sing back into a stutter. [Demonstrates] There’s hope for everybody!"

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"Stuttering has turned from a handicap into an asset"

Scatman John dug even deeper during a 1995 interview with MTV Europe, explaining how, as a professional jazz pianist, he previously hid behind a persona. "I was afraid to show you who I really was," he said. "I think I was ashamed of myself for years because I happen to be a person who stutters. I’ve been stuttering ever since I’ve been speaking. I used music to hide it. I had to be cool and hip because I didn’t want to show you who I really was…I had to find some other way to speak. I found that I could speak much easier and say a lot more through playing music, through singing, through improvising on the piano. I found that it was safe to talk that way. Stuttering has turned from a handicap into an asset. I mean that. It’s only because Scatman stutters that Scatman is happening."

For those just now discovering Scatman John, the timing feels right—a 30th-anniversary vinyl edition of Scatman’s World was released in July.

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