Realistically, I think with Eurodance declining in the early 2000s Larkin would have focused more on his jazz career, putting a bit of distance between himself and his Scatman John persona while still being glad to revert to said persona for whatever occasion warrants it.
Scatman John had a fondness for his line "The things you called dead haven't yet had the chance to be born." And he proved it true by holding onto his love for the jazz and scat singing, a music widely considered to be dead, and breathed new life into it, making it live and thrive once again. And he believed in what he did and loved it so much that when he was diagnosed with lung cancer he refused to stop and spend the rest of his days in and out of hospitals, undergoing treatments that would ensure he could never scat again (cancer treatments have come a LONG way since the 90s and they are *still* horrendous ordeals; trust someone whose mother went through treatment of incredibly aggressive breast cancer). Instead he continued on as long as he could, until finally he no longer could. But even after his death, his work has continually been in a cycle of discovery and rediscovery; each reset of the loop a chance for the Scatman's legacy to find a place in the world once more and live once again in the popular culture. For truly "The things you called dead haven't yet had the chance to be born."
There's always been this side of jazz that has a philosophical/mystical undercurrent. I'm not that versed in it, but of course Sun Ra was like that on the more instrumental side.
Todd, through the whole video: "Scatman says if he can do it so can I but I DEFINITELY can't scat" Video: Did he deserve better? Todd: "Yes. Abso-skibididoutely" You see? The Scatman always believed in you, Todd. The scat really was in you all along ;_;
As if Scatman John couldn’t be any more inspirational than he already was, he left this touching bit of inspiration right here in this video. I love you, Scatman. Thanks for everything.
The fact that his wife helped pushed him forward past his fear and forced him to be great. They both deserve the best in life and beyond. He better be sitting next to the throne with a smile on his face.
Kylie McInnes well it wouldn’t be in one hit wonderland. Alphaville wasn’t very big in the US. They were big in other places, and have more than one hit in those places.
Wait, you guys don't type with a stutter also? Well, that's not funny. I would expect, "As someone with a st-st-st-stutter, this g-g-g-guy is a h-h-he-hero" (This is all in good fun) =p
dude is legendary, getting a huge pop hit in his like fifties while he has a disability and then becoming a fucking meme god in japan before dying having done what he loved. nice. what a cool dude.
Wow, I just came across this. As someone who knew John Larkin personally (I once managed the officially-sanctioned Scatman John website for a time - the URL was on the "Everybody Jam" album), thanks for sharing John's story with accuracy. I first heard "Scatman" while riding the Eurostar train in the north of France while on a vacation in Europe in 1995 and I was like, "WHOA! WHAT IS THIS?!" Eventually I heard it all over Europe and got a hold of the CD single. I made a website about the Scatman because I found his story fascinating, and also discovered that this guy I traveled half the world to be introduced to his music was also from my hometown of Los Angeles and lived less than a half-hour's drive from me. His management people got me in touch with him and we exchanged emails for a time. I did get to meet him once at a jazz club in Hollywood where we watched McCoy Tyner perform...good times. He also sent me from Scat-swag (I still have a Scatman logo necktie and Scatman's World t-shirt) as well as advanced copies of his CD singles (which were never sold in the US). He traveled often so I didn't get to see him after that but I did get to visit his house and pick up some materials to scan for the website from his wife. I heard about his cancer diagnosis and was crushed to learn from an email sent from a friend of his that he died on December 3, 1999. I was invited to his memorial at his house several weeks later. In December 2019, during a road trip, I blasted the "Scatman's World" album in my car as tribute to the man. If he were still around today, I'm sure he'd be proud to know that a fellow stutterer got to become President of the United States.
@@xXRedEggXx Your reply is very odd and unpleasant. Joe Biden has publicly spoken on many occasions about his lifelong struggle with stuttering. I'm sure many people who stutter were encouraged to see someone like them accomplish so much in such a speech-oriented field as politics is.
@@xXRedEggXx i don't think one needs to agree with Biden's politics to agree that he has probably inspired many people with a stutter to pursue their dreams. a stutter is a disability that gets people made fun of a lot. the only person that made this political is you. cringe.
the story of scatman makes me genuinely happy. he's just a guy who wanted to make happy music with unbridled optimism about the world and succeeded, even if he was seen as a fun novelty act. the fact he kept performing while having cancer makes me respect the man even more. god bless scatman, god bless
I actually find this just as endearing as a simmilar yet non-musical story of Bob Ross. He also did his The Joy of Painting series way past how long he should have while battling with cancer. The good men always go so soon.
Andrevus Whitetail I'm glad I'm not the only person that considered Scatman similar to Bob Ross. "You can do anything in your word" So Scatman made Scatland
TODD: "It turns out that the Scatman was absolutely huge . . . in . . ." US: (nodding rapidly) "Say it. Say it!" TODD: ". . . Japan." US: "YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!"
The "God wouldn't do this" comments make me think of the Greek myth of Kleobis and Biton. The Athenian wise man Solon is talking to Croesus, King of Lydia, famous for his wealth (you get the phrase "rich as Croesus") and power (but not his wisdom). Croesus shows Solon how glorious his kingdom and wealth and asks Solon if he is not the happiest man on Earth. Solon responds that he can think of a few happier people. One of his examples, he tells the story of Kleobis and Biton. They're the two sons of the high priestess of the temple of Hera. Her oxen are missing on the day of a major festival and can't be found, so the brothers yoke her chariot to themselves to lead her miles away to the temple. When they arrive her sons are lauded by the crowd for their strength and devotion. The priestess prays to Hera saying that her sons are the greatest a mother could ever ask for, and asked that Hera gives them the greatest gift she could. The brothers fell asleep in the temple there and never woke up. Croesus would go on in a couple years time to destroy his kingdom in an ill-conceived war, seeing his kingdom destroyed and getting mercilessly beheaded by his enemies. He may think he has it all, but that's always a dangerous position, because it's all the more you have to lose. Far happier to Solon were the lives of the two men in the prime of their youth, with all the praise and adoration of their mother and of the city, who died before they had the chance to lose it all. (Croesus, of course, thought that assertion was ridiculous. He'd certainly agree with you about Scatman John's death.)
This song literally saved my life as a kid with a really and stutter. My aunt introduced me to this song when I was 10 because I was having a tough time at school with the teasing. For the first time I heard somebody like me telling me that it's okay to be different and that you should always be comfortable with who you are. Now that I'm 36 with a 10 year old who also stutters I've become his scatman (not like that sicko's) and I'm so indebted to him and my aunt. Scatman I truly love you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you done for me with just one song. Thank you and rest in peace.
My nephew had a particularly bad stutter as a child (he has a less severe one as a teenager now). One memory that sticks in my mind of him was when he was about 9 and we were together with his friends. He started stuttering and one of them laughed at him and started to mimic him, and I could just tell by his face that he wanted to leave everyone and be alone, but he pretended he wasn't bothered by it because this friend was otherwise super nice to him, never argued etc. People think that things like stutters aren't as serious as, say, a developmental disability, but when you're that age, ANYTHING that makes you stand out in any way can be used against you to destroy your self esteem. I say this as an autistic person.
Perhaps he was an emissary from the alternate future where 9/11 never happened, ie. the future people were hoping to see in the mid to late 90s. And when he realized he'd been sent into the wrong timeline, he retreated back under the guise of cancer.
This guy took a genre completely removed from what he'd spent his life doing, and probably hadn't even considered, and made a final, international career out of it. He took eurodance and he ran with it. Bless him.
Great video but 17:17 Scatman never collapsed on stage in 1999, some random dude just put that on wikipedia a couple years ago. John spent most of 1999 with his family and recorded a majority of his final album in his home studio. Also for anyone who hasn't heard, a biopic on this guy was announced a while ago
I feel like the line "If the Scatman can do it, so can you," was misconstrued. He was saying if someone like him can find his place in the world, having a stutter and being old with very little promise of a music career, so can someone like you. Might be reaching a bit though.
@@leaffinite2001 Yeah, i think Todd understood the line in the way the OP did, he just wanted to make a joke on how he can't actually do the scatting like Scatman John.
I'm not drunk at all and I cried. It's such a bitter sweet ending. He did what he loved until he couldn't any longer. I don't know if he continued because it was incurable, or because treatment would take it from him.
The peace and love thing was a common thread through most of Europop. The early and mid nineties were at once a period of great optimism but at the same it also saw a resurgence of neo-nazism, in the east of a newly unified Germany and Scandinavia. The Berlin Wall had come down in 89 and the Cold War was over. But we also started seeing some of the early signs that would come to define the last 20 years of societal tensions. So Europop was a distraction but more importantly an admonition of all that had come to divide the continent the 4 plus decades previous. Yes, the genre is sterile and repetitive, but it is also one of the most unabashedly optimistic. The message of peace and love and togetherness are no coincidence.
I've noticed that there seems to be a correlation between peace and love ethos in music with rising political tensions. In the 70s, Jamaica was in the middle of a massive violent crime spike, urban guerilla fighting was a daily occurance. The drug cartels became real political forces. The Rastafaris were heavily discriminated against and were pulling away from general Jamaican society and forming separatist militias. Bob Marley was almost murdered by one of the major political parties. It got so bad the era is often referred to as the Jamaican civil war. Reggae music was at it's peak in this era, and the lyrics were always about how great peace and love is, and how we should all love one another. Another example would be the hippy movement. I think it's no coincidence that happened during the civil rights era.
@@swagmund_freud6669 during some of the worst of the "troubles" in northern Ireland, the small scale religious war that cost so many lives and caused so much pain and suffering, the country produced loads of fun, loving and optimistic music from great bands like the undertones. People wanted to have a good time and forget the "troubles". Music transported people to a better feeling. It again goes to show the incredible important value of music.
I think the reason Scatman John did so well in Japan like a meme is due to the "soramimi" effect that a lot of songs. The lyrics might appear nonsensical in English but when you convert those syllables into Japanese vocalisations, suddenly there's nonsensical or sensible but funny Japanese phrases (or however soramimi works)
Everybody Jam is still very much a part of culture here during Mardi Gras. Knowing who the artist was... it makes me smile when I hear it being played.
Yup, may have been a novelty for a time, but made a name for himself in his 50s, and he succeeded. Just hearing this story kinda made me a bit teary eyed. Scatman John, we love you, and I hope you doing a real good jazz up there with Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and so many more!
Same, i come back when I need to hear his story again to remind me that even though I'm at the bottom now, i don't have to stay there, that there's reason to keep trying. He's such an inspiration.
I never even knew about his popularity in Japan. But tbh of course Japan would love a guy like him considering the novelty. Also I honestly really want to check out his previous jazz work, the guy was seriously amazing and deserves respect for what he has done.
I've heard the jazz album he did (under his real name, John Paul Larkin) and it's awesome. At least from the perspective of a guy who's much more into rock than jazz.
@@MLBlue30 Not grunge with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, or shock rockers Marilyn Manson and Mindless Self Indulgence, or rap/rock Linkin Park. Or some rock ballads and metal.
Wow. This dude got more and more wholesome and likeable as the video went along but then he became a straight up badass when he died because he refused to let cancer keep from doing what he loved. I have an entirely new respect for this artist and song. Great video, Todd.
John seems like a lovely guy, it's weird he found his success through that genre when he's such a good pianist, I hope he didn't feel like he sold out. I would have done the same thing John, I would have gone to Scatworld too.
What I felt happened. Was the Scatman knew waaaay too much music to the point most folks who worked with him couldnt keep up. He toned it down, but in his own way.
I love how Todd just ended up genuinely loving the Scatman by the end of the review. That level of wholesome is just too pure to not love, it affected me the same way. Awesome review :D
I do too now. I remember the song well but never knew. I'll never listen to it the same way again. I'm going to go download it. I need it in my play list now
I hate when these have a sad ending. He seemed to have a really interesting story, very positive guy. It's one of those songs you randomly stumble across every now and then, and it's always good fun.
Scatman unironically deserves to be remembered as a fantastic human being. All he wanted to do is spread love and he died doing what he truly wanted to do.
As far as the sincerity and how something like this got popular, it was the early-to-mid 90s. There was grunge, sure, but there was also an optimism that the worst of the world's history was behind us with the end of the Cold War. It's two sides of the same coin - grunge was the self-reflection of our own lives still needing work, and songs like this were the positive future we hoped to achieve.
Yes, I was a British child growing up in the 1990s and visiting a lot of the rest of Europe, and I remember it as a very optimistic time. Even the Yugoslav and Kosovo Wars felt like "Genocide won't be tolerated anymore". Unemployment and inflation were coming down. We could make friends with kids from Eastern Europe. The optimism started vanishing in 2001-2003, with 9/11 and the Iraq War.
What do you do when your genre is dying in the US? You make cheese in Europe. What do you do when even Europe is tired of you? You make natto in Japan.
I have rewatched this at least 10 times now. Growing up with a severe speech impediment, Scatman John was a big hero of mine. "If the scatman can do it, so can you!" still kind of tears me up hearing it now.
Your best _One Hit Wonderland_ review so far. It's so possitive and nice, the viewer can feel how much you ended loving this man. And that's no surprise, Scatman was a great man, a treasure for music. i love this video, and i'm glad you decided to finally talk about the Scatman...
This is my favourite One Hit Wonderland episode, even the comments section is beautiful. Scatman John would be proud. I knew the song as Eurodance is unequivocally the soundtrack of my British teenage years - from Haddaway to Alice Deejay to (regrettably) Rednex - but I had no idea about the story behind The Scatman. Epic and inspirational 🖤
I think I love eurodance and it’s for all the same reasons you hate it. I love how corny, campy and upbeat everything is. Even the sad songs sound happy in comparison to everything else in music. It’s like the new disco in that it’s catchy, fun, kinda dumb dance music with a lot of fun and stupid novelty hits as well as some genuinely good songs that give the genre so much character. I definitely see why people might hate super corny and campy dance songs like cotton eyed Joe or I’m blue though even if I have a soft spot for it
@@gluteusuterus5592 It's not surprising, disco was of course huge in Europe back in the day... and honestly I think that stuff like italo disco shows clear early signs of things that would later show up in eurodance.
I find it super funny to hear americans talking about eurodance. It was so huge in europe and everyone who was alive in the 90s definitely recognises these songs. I always assumed it was global phenomena but clearly it never reached the states. Probably big thing was that the lyrics were such a nonsense but many didnt care as they didnt know english that well. In one Jenny Nicholson video she says she doesnt recognise captain jack and im like HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THIS ARTIST :D. It was music of my childhood and for whatever nostalgia reason about 10 years ago 90s parties were big thing in the nordics. For me eurodisco just brings childhood memories of having MTV on playing dr bombay. good times and silly music.
I am proud over having the Scatman's World CD album in my collection in my living room in 2020. Bought it when it came out in 1995 and played the crap out of it back then. 13 year old me loved it. And 38 year old me still like it. 😀
You must be an 82 model like me. I remember this coming out and thinking it was cheesy and nothing more about it. I heard a couple of his follow ups but had forgotten about him. Recently found this channel and now this video and have so much respect for him! Good on you mate, I trule believe we lived our teenage years in the best era.
Goddammit, Todd! I came here hoping to be mildly amused by some '90s quirky music and now I am inspired by this obscure artist. Didn't sign up for this.
Wow, this was way more heartwarming than I thought it would be. I listened to this song ALL THE TIME when I was a kid in the early 2000s (Apparently I listened to a lot of Euro electric music) and there was always something about the singer in the song I liked. And It makes sense. he was a brilliant awesome man!
Scatman was like the Mister Rogers of Euro-pop (sorry Rogers-fans, he's just so wholesome and Rogers is the definition of Mr Rogers). Edit: Mr Rogers is the definition of wholesome* - but I'll leave it there cause that's one tasty freudian slip.
As a kid I loved the song, but now that I know that he struggled in stuttering and his song was a message of hope, I'm getting tears in my eyes. This song is so pure and uplifting.
The soldiers wearing gas masks were actually guerillas from Scatland forming preparing an ambush against Captain Jack's military occupation of Scatland.
Thank you for this. I always assumed he just failed after this, it sounds like he had a varied and rewarding career and was blessed with skill. This makes me feel better knowing he got to enjoy it.
The damned shame is the guy couldn't enjoy it enough, but damn it all the internet seems to be a necromancer and he's pretty damn poular now even if it is for memes. Ol Scatman still brings a smile to our faces 😊
This man was the biggest dork and i love it. I think based on the concept of Euro Dance mixed with Jazz, something modern with something old school, is a precursor to Electro Swing. I raise a glass to you, Scatman John
I honestly thought it was just an early internet version of Sandstorm or a more intentional 009 Sound System Dreamscape. To learn that this was actually a chart song makes me happy.
I really hate it when Americans turn songs from Europe into memes and then think that the meme is where the song came from. 😡 seriously..why do you keep doing that?! You already did that with Dragostea Din Tei and now even 90's eurodance?
Oh man, DDT. If they're eligible I'd love to see him cover it. (My #1 hope is to get Eagle Eye Cherry at some point, because Save Tonight is one of those songs where every single time I hear it I go, goddamn, why didn't this guy have any other hits?)
"If you don't know Captain Jack you didn't play enough DDR" I didn't think this thought would be acknowledged and turned into a statement put out into the world
Big in Japan for sure! Everyone knows about the Ultraman remix, but I also highly recommend MiChi's "All about the Girls", a great J-pop song with liberal Scatman sampling/influence from 2010 of all years!
I remember when this I heard his hit in 1995. I was watching video hits in the morning one weekend and my first reaction was "wtf? Who is this old guy? Is he off his mess or something? Is this some kind of joke?" Because until that point is been led to believe that only hip, young people could be legit pop stars. But even my initial cynicism couldn't fight the catchiness of this song and it won me over. And then the next year I started middle school (jnr high) and was exposed to music on the more hard rock, metal side of things and scatman John and his euro dance contemporaries were quickly forgotten. So watching this was a nice trip down memory lane and it was really cool to see that scatman John was actually a legit musician and not just some geezer they found to play a character miming to a track that some producer cooked up in his bedroom. That's how I honestly thought the track was made once I knew a little bit about music production. I always thought the scat vocals were sampled from some obscure jazz records and rearranged and had the pitch and tempo tweaked to fit the beat that they had created. Of course that was an assumption I made because I didn't care enough to look it up because I'm not the shadowy figure known as Todd. He researches that sort of stuff so that I don't have to 😄
Sounds more like an insult. Pretty sure The Scatman would not like the kind of person Kanye is right now... Like Kanye stands for everything Scatman was against.
Hey, it's your word against his on that. Anyways, i won't change your mind and you won't change mine, so i think we're ok 'bout that. Scatman is still a great person.
i can tell you how it felt the exact moment this song hit it big: i was watching viva zwei with a friend of mine, scatman made its first appearance on the eurocharts, and we just lost it. this nearly 60 year old dude scatting to a eurodance track had us in stitches.. it felt like we were losing our minds, no way is this an actual song! i’ll never forget it.
Thank you for finally covering this song. It makes me so happy to know that his music also makes you as happy as it does to me when i listen to it. An amazing and humble man in every way, taken far too soon
ChristMEMEa V wow, it looks like I'm not the only one! Those were some of the first videos I ever watched on UA-cam back when I was 13! Memories, like the corners of your eyes....
I never forgot this song. It had a great unforgettable hook that could lift one's spirits. When I was stuck at a low point in my career and had to take a temp job at water bottling plant stacking boxes of bottled water one pallets. I took inspiration from this song and dubbed myself, the "Stack man". That made those days suck a little less.
Damn it, Todd! I've always only thought of this song as a stupid hit from my teenage years, and nothing more. You managed to make me see the beauty behind the artist, appreciate the song for what it was, and made me feel genuinely sad when you spoke of his death. And that's why I love you.
If Scatman John was still around, he'd probably be the biggest electro swing artist in the world by now.
He'd also be 80
@@afterdinnercreations936 Those are not contradictory statements.
Realistically, I think with Eurodance declining in the early 2000s Larkin would have focused more on his jazz career, putting a bit of distance between himself and his Scatman John persona while still being glad to revert to said persona for whatever occasion warrants it.
@@IsmailofeRegime He dies in 1999, and then Eurodance declines shortly after? Theory: Scatman was propping Eurodance up.
@@afterdinnercreations936 and probably still killing it at that age too
Scatman John had a fondness for his line "The things you called dead haven't yet had the chance to be born." And he proved it true by holding onto his love for the jazz and scat singing, a music widely considered to be dead, and breathed new life into it, making it live and thrive once again.
And he believed in what he did and loved it so much that when he was diagnosed with lung cancer he refused to stop and spend the rest of his days in and out of hospitals, undergoing treatments that would ensure he could never scat again (cancer treatments have come a LONG way since the 90s and they are *still* horrendous ordeals; trust someone whose mother went through treatment of incredibly aggressive breast cancer). Instead he continued on as long as he could, until finally he no longer could.
But even after his death, his work has continually been in a cycle of discovery and rediscovery; each reset of the loop a chance for the Scatman's legacy to find a place in the world once more and live once again in the popular culture. For truly "The things you called dead haven't yet had the chance to be born."
minionofgruumsh
Feeels
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells skappada-bippity-bop."
-- Frank Zappa
There's always been this side of jazz that has a philosophical/mystical undercurrent. I'm not that versed in it, but of course Sun Ra was like that on the more instrumental side.
Fuck, why are my eyes leaking now
Hmm
Todd, through the whole video: "Scatman says if he can do it so can I but I DEFINITELY can't scat"
Video: Did he deserve better?
Todd: "Yes. Abso-skibididoutely"
You see? The Scatman always believed in you, Todd. The scat really was in you all along ;_;
Nice P3 femc avatar.
@@blackshoed3550 Hey, thanks! It's funny, Ive used this icon for years but the last week or so I've randomly gotten a bunch of compliments on it lol
The Scat is always in you. Especially after a three course meal.
Full of scat.
As if Scatman John couldn’t be any more inspirational than he already was, he left this touching bit of inspiration right here in this video.
I love you, Scatman. Thanks for everything.
The fact that his wife helped pushed him forward past his fear and forced him to be great. They both deserve the best in life and beyond. He better be sitting next to the throne with a smile on his face.
It's terrible he passed so early but he left his beautiful mark. Bless them both.
haha Scatman outsold queen in japan.....wow
Almost Avril Lavigne status...almost...
And queen wrote a song for there Japanese fans
I love Queen, but this is awesome.
Because he's the king
Incredible
"Big in Japan" plottwist of the century.
I ugly laughed at this
It's the deus ex machina of the music industry, it feels like.
Plot twist to the plot twist: Todd does a review of Big In Japan by Alphaville :)
Kylie McInnes well it wouldn’t be in one hit wonderland. Alphaville wasn’t very big in the US. They were big in other places, and have more than one hit in those places.
@@elevatormaniacgames that hasn't stopped other bands from being on one hit wonderland
As someone with a stutter, this guy is a hero
Mel Tillis has a better discography.
Wait, you guys don't type with a stutter also?
Well, that's not funny.
I would expect, "As someone with a st-st-st-stutter, this g-g-g-guy is a h-h-he-hero"
(This is all in good fun) =p
You know who else has a stutter? Samuel L Jackson.
No, seriously.
@@Davethe3rd And James Earl Jones.
And Rowan Atkinson.
dude is legendary, getting a huge pop hit in his like fifties while he has a disability and then becoming a fucking meme god in japan before dying having done what he loved. nice.
what a cool dude.
Epicc
There's so few who can do that.
Wow, I just came across this. As someone who knew John Larkin personally (I once managed the officially-sanctioned Scatman John website for a time - the URL was on the "Everybody Jam" album), thanks for sharing John's story with accuracy. I first heard "Scatman" while riding the Eurostar train in the north of France while on a vacation in Europe in 1995 and I was like, "WHOA! WHAT IS THIS?!" Eventually I heard it all over Europe and got a hold of the CD single. I made a website about the Scatman because I found his story fascinating, and also discovered that this guy I traveled half the world to be introduced to his music was also from my hometown of Los Angeles and lived less than a half-hour's drive from me. His management people got me in touch with him and we exchanged emails for a time. I did get to meet him once at a jazz club in Hollywood where we watched McCoy Tyner perform...good times. He also sent me from Scat-swag (I still have a Scatman logo necktie and Scatman's World t-shirt) as well as advanced copies of his CD singles (which were never sold in the US). He traveled often so I didn't get to see him after that but I did get to visit his house and pick up some materials to scan for the website from his wife. I heard about his cancer diagnosis and was crushed to learn from an email sent from a friend of his that he died on December 3, 1999. I was invited to his memorial at his house several weeks later. In December 2019, during a road trip, I blasted the "Scatman's World" album in my car as tribute to the man. If he were still around today, I'm sure he'd be proud to know that a fellow stutterer got to become President of the United States.
Scatland? Lol, I made the mistake of trying out that same URL some years ago..
This was wholesome and beautiful until you made it political. Cringe
@@xXRedEggXx Your reply is very odd and unpleasant. Joe Biden has publicly spoken on many occasions about his lifelong struggle with stuttering. I'm sure many people who stutter were encouraged to see someone like them accomplish so much in such a speech-oriented field as politics is.
@@KillahMate I actually didn't know that, it really didn't sound any different from a random potshot lol
@@xXRedEggXx i don't think one needs to agree with Biden's politics to agree that he has probably inspired many people with a stutter to pursue their dreams. a stutter is a disability that gets people made fun of a lot. the only person that made this political is you. cringe.
This is definitely the most wholesome episode of Todd in the Shadows
... I didn't know this series was called "TitS". =/
the story of scatman makes me genuinely happy. he's just a guy who wanted to make happy music with unbridled optimism about the world and succeeded, even if he was seen as a fun novelty act. the fact he kept performing while having cancer makes me respect the man even more. god bless scatman, god bless
Skaba daba deep bro
I actually find this just as endearing as a simmilar yet non-musical story of Bob Ross. He also did his The Joy of Painting series way past how long he should have while battling with cancer. The good men always go so soon.
Andrevus Whitetail I'm glad I'm not the only person that considered Scatman similar to Bob Ross.
"You can do anything in your word"
So Scatman made Scatland
TODD: "It turns out that the Scatman was absolutely huge . . . in . . ."
US: (nodding rapidly) "Say it. Say it!"
TODD: ". . . Japan."
US: "YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!"
Thank God for Japan.
SCATMAN BANZAIIIIII
@@garyv2498 What do you mean? I dislike Japan
i sorry for harsh comment did not mean, bye now :) o/ :D
Only in Japan, Eurodance survives to this day. :)
@biasedfullsun if Japan didnt exist, Japanese cars wouldnt exist. That would be a great thing.
“Whatever God wants is fine by me ... I've had the very best life. I have tasted beauty.”
- Scatman John
"His message is that the world can be beautiful and that peace and love are achievable? I should kill this guy with cancer." - God.
@Daniel Bellcaster That was my point.
@Autzen Hallock Not only did he get his message out, but it was made immortal in the form of recorded music... however horribly dated that may be.
The "God wouldn't do this" comments make me think of the Greek myth of Kleobis and Biton.
The Athenian wise man Solon is talking to Croesus, King of Lydia, famous for his wealth (you get the phrase "rich as Croesus") and power (but not his wisdom). Croesus shows Solon how glorious his kingdom and wealth and asks Solon if he is not the happiest man on Earth. Solon responds that he can think of a few happier people.
One of his examples, he tells the story of Kleobis and Biton.
They're the two sons of the high priestess of the temple of Hera. Her oxen are missing on the day of a major festival and can't be found, so the brothers yoke her chariot to themselves to lead her miles away to the temple. When they arrive her sons are lauded by the crowd for their strength and devotion. The priestess prays to Hera saying that her sons are the greatest a mother could ever ask for, and asked that Hera gives them the greatest gift she could.
The brothers fell asleep in the temple there and never woke up.
Croesus would go on in a couple years time to destroy his kingdom in an ill-conceived war, seeing his kingdom destroyed and getting mercilessly beheaded by his enemies. He may think he has it all, but that's always a dangerous position, because it's all the more you have to lose.
Far happier to Solon were the lives of the two men in the prime of their youth, with all the praise and adoration of their mother and of the city, who died before they had the chance to lose it all.
(Croesus, of course, thought that assertion was ridiculous. He'd certainly agree with you about Scatman John's death.)
Why do people absolutely have to screech that god isn't real every time they see god mentioned?
16:40 "Best selling foreign albums in Japan: The Beatles, Mariah Carey, Queen and, of course, _THE SCATMAN."_
That kills me every time I rewatch this.
Oh. That explains Murakami. I meant about the Beatles, of course, not Scatman.
I love seeing The Carpenters on the list.
This song literally saved my life as a kid with a really and stutter. My aunt introduced me to this song when I was 10 because I was having a tough time at school with the teasing. For the first time I heard somebody like me telling me that it's okay to be different and that you should always be comfortable with who you are. Now that I'm 36 with a 10 year old who also stutters I've become his scatman (not like that sicko's) and I'm so indebted to him and my aunt. Scatman I truly love you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you done for me with just one song. Thank you and rest in peace.
Jesus... I'm reading all the comments and crying like a baby
My nephew had a particularly bad stutter as a child (he has a less severe one as a teenager now). One memory that sticks in my mind of him was when he was about 9 and we were together with his friends. He started stuttering and one of them laughed at him and started to mimic him, and I could just tell by his face that he wanted to leave everyone and be alone, but he pretended he wasn't bothered by it because this friend was otherwise super nice to him, never argued etc. People think that things like stutters aren't as serious as, say, a developmental disability, but when you're that age, ANYTHING that makes you stand out in any way can be used against you to destroy your self esteem. I say this as an autistic person.
Scatman didn't die, he just returned to Scatland.
Perhaps he was an emissary from the alternate future where 9/11 never happened, ie. the future people were hoping to see in the mid to late 90s. And when he realized he'd been sent into the wrong timeline, he retreated back under the guise of cancer.
Scatland is the shitty version of scotland... Ok you can gun me down now
I thought Scotland was was the shitty version of Scatland.
The things you call dead have not yet had the chance to be born.
The 21st Century didn't deserve Scatman John.
This guy took a genre completely removed from what he'd spent his life doing, and probably hadn't even considered, and made a final, international career out of it.
He took eurodance and he ran with it.
Bless him.
I'm not religious but this man alone makes me hope heaven is real just because he deserves to be there
2hu
Well there is one so don’t worry
@@multijxde1855 well there isn't one. Or at least there is no reason to believe it is real.
He went to Scatman’s world.
Coolfred again that’s what YOU BELIEVE, don’t knock on other religions just because you don’t understand it
Great video but 17:17 Scatman never collapsed on stage in 1999, some random dude just put that on wikipedia a couple years ago. John spent most of 1999 with his family and recorded a majority of his final album in his home studio.
Also for anyone who hasn't heard, a biopic on this guy was announced a while ago
Cool
I feel like the line "If the Scatman can do it, so can you," was misconstrued. He was saying if someone like him can find his place in the world, having a stutter and being old with very little promise of a music career, so can someone like you. Might be reaching a bit though.
I think you're spot on. That's exactly what I thought when watching this. He was telling us all we can do whatever we set our minds to as well
“Not everyone can become a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
well i think todd was just trying to be funny
@@leaffinite2001 Yeah, i think Todd understood the line in the way the OP did, he just wanted to make a joke on how he can't actually do the scatting like Scatman John.
I'm a little drunk right now and I cried at the end of this. What a beautiful man
I'm not drunk at all and I cried. It's such a bitter sweet ending. He did what he loved until he couldn't any longer. I don't know if he continued because it was incurable, or because treatment would take it from him.
Sometimes I like to get drunk and rewatch this episode. There's something about The Scatman's story
Dude the scat man extended universe was amazing
Scatworld
Scatworld 2: Age of autotune
Scatworld: Infinity syllables
Man, it was so sad when scatman died in infinity syllables. Louis dying was sad too. I'm so excited for infinity syllables 2.
@@denisdukaj it will be Scatworld: EndScat
My favorite was Captain Jack: Civil War.
John Larkin was my grandfather's cousin. He'd be happy to know he lives on.
Fucking NERD
Brandon E Really, bro? Was that necessary?
Your blessed to have a legend as part of your family tree. John would hope you can follow your dreams
The peace and love thing was a common thread through most of Europop. The early and mid nineties were at once a period of great optimism but at the same it also saw a resurgence of neo-nazism, in the east of a newly unified Germany and Scandinavia. The Berlin Wall had come down in 89 and the Cold War was over. But we also started seeing some of the early signs that would come to define the last 20 years of societal tensions.
So Europop was a distraction but more importantly an admonition of all that had come to divide the continent the 4 plus decades previous.
Yes, the genre is sterile and repetitive, but it is also one of the most unabashedly optimistic. The message of peace and love and togetherness are no coincidence.
I've noticed that there seems to be a correlation between peace and love ethos in music with rising political tensions. In the 70s, Jamaica was in the middle of a massive violent crime spike, urban guerilla fighting was a daily occurance. The drug cartels became real political forces. The Rastafaris were heavily discriminated against and were pulling away from general Jamaican society and forming separatist militias. Bob Marley was almost murdered by one of the major political parties. It got so bad the era is often referred to as the Jamaican civil war. Reggae music was at it's peak in this era, and the lyrics were always about how great peace and love is, and how we should all love one another.
Another example would be the hippy movement. I think it's no coincidence that happened during the civil rights era.
@@swagmund_freud6669 during some of the worst of the "troubles" in northern Ireland, the small scale religious war that cost so many lives and caused so much pain and suffering, the country produced loads of fun, loving and optimistic music from great bands like the undertones.
People wanted to have a good time and forget the "troubles".
Music transported people to a better feeling.
It again goes to show the incredible important value of music.
Neo nazism in 90's Scandinavia? Where in the world have you read that? I'm Scandinavian, and I can tell you that it wasn't a notable problem up here.
@@supersejkaj3093black metal?
I think the reason Scatman John did so well in Japan like a meme is due to the "soramimi" effect that a lot of songs. The lyrics might appear nonsensical in English but when you convert those syllables into Japanese vocalisations, suddenly there's nonsensical or sensible but funny Japanese phrases (or however soramimi works)
Also, scat
He died doing what he loved. And despite Lung Cancer, age and stutter, a real artist
I like to think the Scatman is up in heaven throwing a little scat down on all of us.
definitely deserved to be up there with queen for pure musical dedication
He loved cancer cells in his lungs?
Blood Bath and Beyond - Pop Goes Metal Covers Whaddya think??
@@irkmcspamtroll2556 grody
"Everybody Jam" is the most delightful song I've heard in a long time and my life is instantly better for having listened to it.
Couldn't agree more! I love it and would have never heard it were it not for this video. So, thanks Todd!
Everybody Jam was one of my favourite songs in the late '00s. For whatever reason, early UA-cam was super into eurodance.
Like numa numa.
Yeah I love that one, honestly his best song, surprised that one didn't gain much traction compared to the original Scatman song
Everybody Jam is still very much a part of culture here during Mardi Gras. Knowing who the artist was... it makes me smile when I hear it being played.
Brb. Learning scattish and moving to scatland.
10:44 15:55 And now Scatman is not a One Hit Wonder anymore... "Scatland" and "Everbody Jam" are actual hits thanks to the power of Internet and memes.
Well in Europe he never was one hit wonder since Scatman World was also big.
@@trikalabris right
Petition to declare Scatland as meme heaven so Stefán Stefánsson can go to Scatland.
My friends called Scatman's World "PA-PO-PE-PO"
"Scatish is a language not quite like a leprechaun..'
Oh.. that clears things right up!
I still, legit, have no fucking idea what that is supposed to mean...
Wtf about leprechauns...? O.o
@@dajosh42069 The only thing I can think of is that one that show up on the Simpsons. He spoke a bunch of jibberish (my ex would quote that at random)
Yup, may have been a novelty for a time, but made a name for himself in his 50s, and he succeeded. Just hearing this story kinda made me a bit teary eyed. Scatman John, we love you, and I hope you doing a real good jazz up there with Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and so many more!
Don't worry, the Scatman is in Scatland watching over us
Oh hey moon spirit
Hey Mitch! Fancy seeing you here in Todd's vids!
Along with Scatman Cruthers (Jazz)
HeavyEyed hey heavyeyed
This is probably my third or fourth time watching, but every time fills me with happiness. The Scatman makes me want to be a better person.
Its a process. Better than yesterday. Even better tomorrow.
Same, i come back when I need to hear his story again to remind me that even though I'm at the bottom now, i don't have to stay there, that there's reason to keep trying. He's such an inspiration.
Watch The Video
Be Happy
Listen To Some Songs By Him
Wait A Bit
Repeat
Hell yes
The 90's died when he died. Literally
Music was never that upbeat again. What a loss.
@@MLBlue30 I mean music trends in the 90s were the musical equivalent of a schizoid with bipolar II
"15 minute solos and time signature changes" That is very precisely my jam.
Big Primus fan, are ya?
@@Liquid_Mike I was thinking Dave Brubeck but Big Primus might be neat too!
I'm a prog fan. I can confirm this is my cup of tea
The SCU (scatman cinematic universe)
Or SCU (Scatitonia County University)...idk I just thought of a Scatland city and ran with it
Is Oingo Boingo apart of it since John Larkin plays piano on sax player Sluggo Phipp's solo album?
I never even knew about his popularity in Japan.
But tbh of course Japan would love a guy like him considering the novelty.
Also I honestly really want to check out his previous jazz work, the guy was seriously amazing and deserves respect for what he has done.
TSG Frank Mr. Big and The Cardigans were also OHWs and also were big in Japan!
As I recall, Japan loves jazz
I've heard the jazz album he did (under his real name, John Paul Larkin) and it's awesome. At least from the perspective of a guy who's much more into rock than jazz.
Damn he never made it to the new millennium. At least he never got to see 9/11 and how unlike Scatland our world actually became.
Considering how much he wrote about lies and politics I think the entirety of 2001-8 would have been enough to kill him without the lung cancer.
a lot of the music from the 90s seemed more upbeat than music is now.
@@MLBlue30 Not grunge with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, or shock rockers Marilyn Manson and Mindless Self Indulgence, or rap/rock Linkin Park. Or some rock ballads and metal.
Man this made me sad now, fuk u.
@@Xetelian I didn't say all the music was happy, but good point with your examples.
Wow. This dude got more and more wholesome and likeable as the video went along but then he became a straight up badass when he died because he refused to let cancer keep from doing what he loved. I have an entirely new respect for this artist and song. Great video, Todd.
John seems like a lovely guy, it's weird he found his success through that genre when he's such a good pianist, I hope he didn't feel like he sold out. I would have done the same thing John, I would have gone to Scatworld too.
What I felt happened. Was the Scatman knew waaaay too much music to the point most folks who worked with him couldnt keep up. He toned it down, but in his own way.
I'm sure he still played piano. Just made some money with his side gig.
@@michaelhall5429There's a live version here on UA-cam with a lengthy keyboard solo in the middle, so yeah, he certainly did.
I love how Todd just ended up genuinely loving the Scatman by the end of the review. That level of wholesome is just too pure to not love, it affected me the same way. Awesome review :D
How could you not love the Scatman?
His improbable success is genuinely heartwarming.
I do too now. I remember the song well but never knew. I'll never listen to it the same way again. I'm going to go download it. I need it in my play list now
I hate when these have a sad ending. He seemed to have a really interesting story, very positive guy.
It's one of those songs you randomly stumble across every now and then, and it's always good fun.
Alternatively titled "How Todd learned to give a shit about the Scatman"
giving a shit about scat... there is a joke somewhere in there, but i just can't... ooooooohhhh...
SpaceMonkeyEntertainment ew
"Dr Scatman; or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Scat"
Scatman unironically deserves to be remembered as a fantastic human being. All he wanted to do is spread love and he died doing what he truly wanted to do.
When Scatman John died, God stepped down from his throne, gave it to John, and now Heaven is Scatland.
actually, it's Scatman's World.
Thought that said Scotland for a sec lol
@@madiserket2 If heaven is Scatman's world I would wanna come in
I agree
As far as the sincerity and how something like this got popular, it was the early-to-mid 90s. There was grunge, sure, but there was also an optimism that the worst of the world's history was behind us with the end of the Cold War. It's two sides of the same coin - grunge was the self-reflection of our own lives still needing work, and songs like this were the positive future we hoped to achieve.
i miss the happy 90s. i wouldnt blame it all on 9/11 but it certainly didnt help
Perhaps one day we will all ascend to the realm of Scatland
and rap music was in the middle. gotta love the 90s to early 00s.
roguishpaladin I mean, sure if you're doing this from an American's POV. Unfortunately, there was a lot of uncertainty in Europe.
Yes, I was a British child growing up in the 1990s and visiting a lot of the rest of Europe, and I remember it as a very optimistic time. Even the Yugoslav and Kosovo Wars felt like "Genocide won't be tolerated anymore". Unemployment and inflation were coming down. We could make friends with kids from Eastern Europe. The optimism started vanishing in 2001-2003, with 9/11 and the Iraq War.
What do you do when your genre is dying in the US? You make cheese in Europe.
What do you do when even Europe is tired of you? You make natto in Japan.
But... what do you do when your Japanese career is over?
@@TimmyTickle you come back to america with this "new" foreign genre
But what if you dont like natto?
Does the white tree of gondor still stand ?
damn it todd you made me care and i felt that emotion rise within me at the end. rip scatman.
Hayley W/W Same here. I was shocked when I actually started crying.
I have rewatched this at least 10 times now. Growing up with a severe speech impediment, Scatman John was a big hero of mine. "If the scatman can do it, so can you!" still kind of tears me up hearing it now.
❤❤❤
This is the first One Hit Wonderland to borderline make me tear up.
I love Scatman John and his dorky love for humanity and jazz ❤️
Fantastic achievement in music
Every instance of Todd saying Scat in this review:
1:14
1:17
1:28
1:41
1:44
1:52
1:59
2:26
2:45
2:47
2:49
4:16
4:56
6:16
6:24
7:13
7:25
7:35
7:45
8:07
8:16
8:37
9:09
9:59
10:00
10:26
10:45
10:55
11:05
11:13
11:18
11:38
12:24
12:31
12:36
12:37
12:38
12:40
13:19
13:34
13:36
14:12
14:27
14:36
15:26
16:09
16:38
16:55
17:40
18:05
...that’s a lot of Scat...
Your best _One Hit Wonderland_ review so far. It's so possitive and nice, the viewer can feel how much you ended loving this man. And that's no surprise, Scatman was a great man, a treasure for music. i love this video, and i'm glad you decided to finally talk about the Scatman...
This is my favourite One Hit Wonderland episode, even the comments section is beautiful. Scatman John would be proud. I knew the song as Eurodance is unequivocally the soundtrack of my British teenage years - from Haddaway to Alice Deejay to (regrettably) Rednex - but I had no idea about the story behind The Scatman. Epic and inspirational 🖤
I think I love eurodance and it’s for all the same reasons you hate it. I love how corny, campy and upbeat everything is. Even the sad songs sound happy in comparison to everything else in music. It’s like the new disco in that it’s catchy, fun, kinda dumb dance music with a lot of fun and stupid novelty hits as well as some genuinely good songs that give the genre so much character. I definitely see why people might hate super corny and campy dance songs like cotton eyed Joe or I’m blue though even if I have a soft spot for it
Todd likes his bandwagons.
I guess you could call eurodance disco 2.0, I never thought about it in that way
@@gluteusuterus5592 It's not surprising, disco was of course huge in Europe back in the day... and honestly I think that stuff like italo disco shows clear early signs of things that would later show up in eurodance.
Yeah, although disco died an agonizing death in America, it never really died in Europe. It's the direct predecessor to Eurodance through Italo Disco.
I find it super funny to hear americans talking about eurodance. It was so huge in europe and everyone who was alive in the 90s definitely recognises these songs. I always assumed it was global phenomena but clearly it never reached the states. Probably big thing was that the lyrics were such a nonsense but many didnt care as they didnt know english that well. In one Jenny Nicholson video she says she doesnt recognise captain jack and im like HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THIS ARTIST :D. It was music of my childhood and for whatever nostalgia reason about 10 years ago 90s parties were big thing in the nordics. For me eurodisco just brings childhood memories of having MTV on playing dr bombay. good times and silly music.
This was weirdly emotional
WHY AM I CRYING ABOUT THE SCATMAN. Todd, what did you DO???
I'm morbidly excited for the "Has he done anything since?" part of this video
No. Please, no.
well i seriously am wondering tho
he's dead
nooo i was hoping he died like... later. i knew he was dead. goddamn.
Mmmmmm scatmans world
I am proud over having the Scatman's World CD album in my collection in my living room in 2020. Bought it when it came out in 1995 and played the crap out of it back then. 13 year old me loved it. And 38 year old me still like it. 😀
You must be an 82 model like me. I remember this coming out and thinking it was cheesy and nothing more about it. I heard a couple of his follow ups but had forgotten about him. Recently found this channel and now this video and have so much respect for him! Good on you mate, I trule believe we lived our teenage years in the best era.
I unironically love Scatman Jon and think he is one of my favorite musicians
Goddammit, Todd! I came here hoping to be mildly amused by some '90s quirky music and now I am inspired by this obscure artist. Didn't sign up for this.
Didn't expect to cry at the end of this video :'(
TJ Tarshis The feels at the end...
Did not expect to end this video in tears.
Did you ever get to stop?? 😭
I'm a metalhead and punk, and when me and my old punk band went on the road for some shows, Scatman was always on our road trip mix cd. Love it.
As someone who stutters, Scatman overcoming his speech issues was a big inspiration to me when I discovered him as a young kid
Marvel: Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover in history
90s eurodance: This.
Wow, this was way more heartwarming than I thought it would be. I listened to this song ALL THE TIME when I was a kid in the early 2000s (Apparently I listened to a lot of Euro electric music) and there was always something about the singer in the song I liked. And It makes sense. he was a brilliant awesome man!
Scatman lives forever in Scatland which exists in the hearts of every scatfan.
I was a child when Scatman John came out and kids *loved* the Scatman. He was like your quirky fun loving uncle.
I must now have a full history of the Captain Jack vs Scatland conflict.
This is implying Scatman's World isn't also a big hit.
D.A.R Everybody Jam was too from what I read
You are both right he was not exactly "one hit wonder,".
@@UmbrellaSound however this song is what most people will find first
"One Hit Wonder" is a relative term anyway...Clearly Scatman John had many hits in certain countries. The same goes for other "OHW"s.
Todd's "One Hit Wonder" reference is based on the US
I'm happy that Scatman John managed to breach through to the hits even for a little bit before he passed away.
10:53 I mean how could the follow up have failed!?? He was spitting straight FACTZ here doe!!!
Scatman was like the Mister Rogers of Euro-pop (sorry Rogers-fans, he's just so wholesome and Rogers is the definition of Mr Rogers).
Edit: Mr Rogers is the definition of wholesome* - but I'll leave it there cause that's one tasty freudian slip.
First episode of this show that made me tear up a little.
As a kid I loved the song, but now that I know that he struggled in stuttering and his song was a message of hope, I'm getting tears in my eyes.
This song is so pure and uplifting.
The soldiers wearing gas masks were actually guerillas from Scatland forming preparing an ambush against Captain Jack's military occupation of Scatland.
Thank you for this. I always assumed he just failed after this, it sounds like he had a varied and rewarding career and was blessed with skill. This makes me feel better knowing he got to enjoy it.
The damned shame is the guy couldn't enjoy it enough, but damn it all the internet seems to be a necromancer and he's pretty damn poular now even if it is for memes. Ol Scatman still brings a smile to our faces 😊
I nearly teared up. I stutter a bit, thank you Scatman. You gave me and millions of people hope.
This man was the biggest dork and i love it. I think based on the concept of Euro Dance mixed with Jazz, something modern with something old school, is a precursor to Electro Swing. I raise a glass to you, Scatman John
well, the most suprising part about this episode is discovering that this song was a hit, and not just a meme fluke
Right? I never heard of it until well into the 2000s in old videos. It never got airtime on the radio here
I honestly thought it was just an early internet version of Sandstorm or a more intentional 009 Sound System Dreamscape. To learn that this was actually a chart song makes me happy.
I remember it being a big hit. I was 6 years old at this time. I loved it!
I really hate it when Americans turn songs from Europe into memes and then think that the meme is where the song came from. 😡 seriously..why do you keep doing that?! You already did that with Dragostea Din Tei and now even 90's eurodance?
Oh man, DDT. If they're eligible I'd love to see him cover it.
(My #1 hope is to get Eagle Eye Cherry at some point, because Save Tonight is one of those songs where every single time I hear it I go, goddamn, why didn't this guy have any other hits?)
I hear he's still playing in Scathmandu
Underrated comment right here
"If you don't know Captain Jack you didn't play enough DDR"
I didn't think this thought would be acknowledged and turned into a statement put out into the world
Oh its you.
This was touching; mad respect to the man of scat.
Wow, found a whole new level of respect for a guy who did a goofy, but good, song.
never clicked a video faster in my life
I stopped watching James Rolfe for this
As a stutterer, This man is my inspiration to follow my dreams
Big in Japan for sure! Everyone knows about the Ultraman remix, but I also highly recommend MiChi's "All about the Girls", a great J-pop song with liberal Scatman sampling/influence from 2010 of all years!
I remember when this I heard his hit in 1995. I was watching video hits in the morning one weekend and my first reaction was "wtf? Who is this old guy? Is he off his mess or something? Is this some kind of joke?" Because until that point is been led to believe that only hip, young people could be legit pop stars. But even my initial cynicism couldn't fight the catchiness of this song and it won me over. And then the next year I started middle school (jnr high) and was exposed to music on the more hard rock, metal side of things and scatman John and his euro dance contemporaries were quickly forgotten. So watching this was a nice trip down memory lane and it was really cool to see that scatman John was actually a legit musician and not just some geezer they found to play a character miming to a track that some producer cooked up in his bedroom. That's how I honestly thought the track was made once I knew a little bit about music production. I always thought the scat vocals were sampled from some obscure jazz records and rearranged and had the pitch and tempo tweaked to fit the beat that they had created. Of course that was an assumption I made because I didn't care enough to look it up because I'm not the shadowy figure known as Todd. He researches that sort of stuff so that I don't have to 😄
I actually learned something today
Kien Johnson that the end of the story?
I would assume more of the beginning myself.
After all these years I still keep coming back to this episode when I’m feeling sad. If the Scatman can do it so can you 😊
Kanye’s verse on Lift Yourself is a Scatman tribute.
I don’t care if this is a lie. I’m still going to believe it.
Sounds more like an insult. Pretty sure The Scatman would not like the kind of person Kanye is right now... Like Kanye stands for everything Scatman was against.
POOP
Seab The Doggo Well that’s not very Scoop Diddy Whoop of You Piddy Whoop.
*ME乙ムんGOフ乇レノ* and against slavery, unlike Kanye.
Hey, it's your word against his on that. Anyways, i won't change your mind and you won't change mine, so i think we're ok 'bout that. Scatman is still a great person.
Smiled from ear to ear throughout the entire episode. This song will always have a special place in my heart.
His cover of Queen's "Invisible Man" is pretty damn good too.
i can tell you how it felt the exact moment this song hit it big: i was watching viva zwei with a friend of mine, scatman made its first appearance on the eurocharts, and we just lost it. this nearly 60 year old dude scatting to a eurodance track had us in stitches.. it felt like we were losing our minds, no way is this an actual song! i’ll never forget it.
Thank you for finally covering this song.
It makes me so happy to know that his music also makes you as happy as it does to me when i listen to it.
An amazing and humble man in every way, taken far too soon
Scatman deserves the entire world
Anybody remember those Super Mario 64 videos from 2009 with this song in it?
ChristMEMEa V Absolutely! :)
oh yeah.
My memory was of some old UA-cam Poops that had it on there myself. :)
I remembered and love those videos
ChristMEMEa V wow, it looks like I'm not the only one! Those were some of the first videos I ever watched on UA-cam back when I was 13! Memories, like the corners of your eyes....
I never forgot this song. It had a great unforgettable hook that could lift one's spirits. When I was stuck at a low point in my career and had to take a temp job at water bottling plant stacking boxes of bottled water one pallets. I took inspiration from this song and dubbed myself, the "Stack man". That made those days suck a little less.
Scatman's World sold better in Japan than every Queen album individually.
Damn it, Todd! I've always only thought of this song as a stupid hit from my teenage years, and nothing more. You managed to make me see the beauty behind the artist, appreciate the song for what it was, and made me feel genuinely sad when you spoke of his death.
And that's why I love you.