Scatman John John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), better known by his stage name Scatman John, was an American music artist who created a fusion of scat singing and dance music, best known for his 1995 hits "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" and "Scatman's World" and 1997 hit "Everybody Jam!" As a stutterer, Larkin stated that scatting was "turning [his] biggest problem into [his] biggest asset." Scatman John sold millions of recordings worldwide and was named "Best New Artist" in the Echo Awards in both Japan and Germany. He was a recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community and National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.