John Paul Larkin A.K.A Scatman John

**John Paul Larkin** AKA ***Scatman John***

## ***Bio***

### **Musical Career in the 80s**

Upon moving to the 1980s at the age of 43, John Larkin took residence in the year 1986 where he would gain the courage to sing for the first time ever in his life.

He would go on to perform a Jazz song called John Larkin, an Album which at the time had rendered over 6 song tracks at the time of Larkin's first attempt at obtaining a musical career.

Despite putting a lot of heart and effort into the John Larkin Album which released in 1986, the Album received mixed reviews, and didn't perform as well as John had hoped, and failed to sell that many copies, mainly due to the 80s being more Intune with Euro-pop, Hip Hop, and Pop music at the time, as within the 1980s, Jazz had completely started to fade out of existence making it not as popular as it was within the 1970s Era, due to Jazz being 70s Culture.

Due to the failure of the John Larkin Album, Larkin himself would go on to take a temporary retirement from singing, believing that him attempting to perform Jazz in the 1980s would have been impossible, but did not completely lose hope in his ability in order to achieve a career in singing, and moved to the year Early 90s portion of the 80s, where he would reside in 1990 for a short period of time in order to advance his career within 1990 Era Germany at the time.

From then on, he would later learn from the more modern songs that were playing throughout Europe at the time, which in turn would inspire him to leave the 1980s completely, and enter the 1990s Era, where he would reside in the year 1994, where he began work on his first official project, along with the help of Antonio Nunzio Catania, where he would not know that this one project would eventually lead to the Birth and creation of his alter-ego Scatman John that very same year.

### **Career In the 1990s**

In 1995, at age 53, Larkin became a worldwide star. Sales of his debut single were slow at first, but they gradually reached number one in many countries and sold over six million records worldwide. "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" charted highly across Europe and Japan and remains his biggest-selling and most well-known song.

He later followed up with the song "Scatman's World" entering the UK Singles chart at number 10, which met lesser but still notable success, selling a million copies and charting highly throughout Europe. In 2019, "Scatman's World" had some resurgence after becoming an internet meme.

Following the success of these two singles, he released his debut album as Scatman John, also titled Scatman's World, which entered the top 10 album charts in many countries including his then home Germany as well as in Switzerland, Finland and Norway; the album eventually sold millions of copies worldwide, becoming so popular that a Scatman John design appeared on Coca-Cola cans. He began a promotional and concert tour of Europe and Asia. Referring to a performance in Spain, Larkin said, "the kids screamed for five minutes straight, I couldn't start the song".

The second Scatman John album, Everybody Jam!, was released in 1996. While nowhere near as successful on an international level as his debut, the album and accompanying single took off in Japan, the country in which he would see success on a larger scale than anywhere else in the world.[citation needed] In Europe, subsequent singles failed to replicate the chart success of his first two singles, giving him the title two-hit wonder.

The Japanese version of Everybody Jam! included a total of five bonus tracks, including the hit singles there Su Su Su Super Ki Re i and "Pripri Scat", which were commissioned by Japanese companies for commercials for cosmetics and pudding respectively. The Ultraman franchise even jumped on the Scatman bandwagon, releasing a single titled Scatultraman, the cover art of which featured the Ultraman characters wearing Scatman's trademark hat and mustache.[citation needed] The album reached No. 45 in Switzerland.

During his time in the 1990s, Scatman would go on to release Take Your Time, at the height of his popularity, but never officially sung or performed within the year 1998, the cause of this was never known, but in an interview conducted by British News reporters in the year 1999, revealed that the only reason that Larkin had stood clear of the year 1998, was because something in his heart was telling him that if he did, it might result into the death of him by the year 1999. Larkin claimed that he had no idea why he was feeling this, but it was just something that he didn't want to risk.

Despite not performing in 1998, his songs would still make it to the Year, due his music being 90s Era based, allowing it to be heard everywhere at the time.

### **Universal Musical Career**

Following the Career in the 1990s, Scatman decided to share his talent with other Voids outside the 1990s, leading to the start of the Universal Music Career where He began his travels in the voids to release albums and work on them in modern times whilst traveling to the 90s to perform and stay true to his fans in the 3 different eras, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s.

On December 9th, 2001, after a 3 year hiatus, he releases an album, Su Su Su Super Ki Re i, as a way to give his 1996 single it's own album. It received generally positive reviews from critics and fans alike for it's party rock sound and how Scatman could switch between his signature scat and singing rock songs no problem.

He spent 2 whole years developing Stop The Rain gaining inspiration for the name while daydreaming during a rainy day at his New York Hotel, which he called a beautiful moment, one that he hasn't felt in years because of how much he was on the road due to him being famous.

Stop The Rain, released on July 15th, 2003 received critical acclaim, with several critics claiming it to be his best album yet. The album ended up winning the Album of the Year Award at the 2004 Grammy Awards. It's single, Gust of Wind, also won the "Song of the Year" award at the same event.

On November 25th, 2004, he released his 7th album, Premium Scat, which received mixed to favorable reviews, though critics and fans named it a step down from Stop the Rain.

They also criticized it's lack of his signature scatting, which he soon apologized for, stating that "The party rock genre got ahead of me, and I forgot that I am well... the Scatman!". He took 3 years off to change his writing ways and practice his scatting as he hadn't scatted in an album since 2003's Stop The Rain.

On August 30th, 2007, he released Take Me Away, which received mixed to negative reviews by fans and critics alike, stating that even after a 3-year hiatus, he still couldn't perfect his scatting like how he used to in the 90s. Several fans stopped listening to Scatman, calling him "Once a legend, now a joke." and "An old fart who can't scat if his life depended on it.". Scatman was heartbroken.

He spent 10 months fixing his mistakes and accepting the responses, soon after releasing his 9th studio album, Polaroid on April 3rd, 2008.

The album received generally positive reviews from critics and fans, stating that he had finally fixed his scat problem. They praised his vocal reach, with one of his singles, I've Changed, being nominated for "Song of the Year" at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

But he missed the event and couldn't be present in the audience due to having a stroke in late 2008 and having recovered 3 months after the event.

On December 19th, 2010, he released his 10th album, This Is Our Time, which generally positive reviews from critics and fans, with their response being delighted at how much his scatting improved compared to 2007's Take Me Away in which they felt he lost his ability to Scat.

After a 4 year hiatus that included him focusing on living a private life with his family, he released his 11th album, A Trip Back To Scatman's World, which received generally positive reviews from critics and fans, calling it "A trip back to the Scatman's legendary run in the 1990s!". Soon after, he took a 5 year break. In 2017, he announced his retirement from music, but soon unretired after strong consideration

On June 19th, 2019, he released his 12th studio album, "A Trip Down Memory Lane". The album received mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans.

With the positive side stating that the album was "A nice tribute to his past and a reality check to fans that the Scatman is getting old, but still has a lot left in him.". The mixed to negative side also had a heavy opinion on the album. With the mixed side stating that the album "Even with some good songs, it still gives off a vibe that Scatman is simply a shell of his former self.", and the negative side stating the album is simply "unbearable" and that "hearing the pain in John's voice lets us know that he needs to stop making music.". After heavy consideration, Scatman John announced on August 26th, 2020 that he is "Wrapping up his music career with one final album."

On Christmas Day of 2020, he released his 13th and final album, "See You Next Time", which received universal acclaim and praise by critics and fans alike. See You Next Time was awarded the "Album of the Year" award at the 2021 Grammy Awards, as well "Song of the Year" for the final song of the album, "Goodbye". He also received the "Best Rock Performance" award for the song "Sunshine". Several media sources named the album the best album of 2020, calling it "a masterpiece" and "a rare album for the soul that we never see in these modern times." It placed 18th out of 500 on Rolling Stone's 2022 list of the Top 500 Best Albums Ever.

### **Post Musical Career**

Following his retirement in 2020, John Larkin, Returned back to the 1990s Era and is currently residing in the year 1997, where claimed in an Interview that he had the best musical career of his entire life despite some of his albums not making head way in the new century, and claimed that it wasn't about the fame and glory, it was about having fun and doing the very thing you love.

Though retired from making Albums, John Larkin after returning back to the 1990s, did not stop singing, as he continued to sing his former classics throughout the years of the 1990s Era from his old legendary Classics such as Everybody Jam!, Scatman's World, Scat Paradise, Take Your Time, and his very first scat Album Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop, the song which gain him fame in 1994.

When asked on why not retire altogether after he had stopped making albums, John Larkin responded that he just loved singing, and since returning back to the 1990s, the very Era which he was able to rise to fame from, while at the same time returning to his 50s when it came to age due to him returning back, John Larkin mentioned that being back in the 1990s reminded him of the beauty of how he became Scatman John from the start, and claimed that it was from the 1990s that gave him the happiest time of his life since he moved to it from the 1980s Era from the year 1990 at the time.

He also revealed that due to these beautiful memories he refused to stop his singing career claiming that he will stop making new songs, but will continue to sing his old classics as time progressed throughout Europe, and even claimed that maybe just maybe in the future he might return someday into making new albums for the 1990s.