Scatman John: The Remarkable Story of the World’s Unlikeliest Popstar

Music journalist Waggott debuts with an affectionate biography of John Larkin (1942–1999), better known as Scatman John, who rose to fame in the mid-1990s with a blend of jazz, pop, and scat-singing. Bullied for his stutter as a kid, Larkin discovered jazz piano as a teen and threw himself into music when he realized his stutter disappeared when he sang. He became an accomplished pianist, though his career was hampered by issues with drugs and alcohol (getting high “produced precious moments of fluency, and John clung to them like a lifeline”). Following his recovery from alcoholism, he rejected the idea that he needed to suppress his stutter. He signed with a German indie label in 1994 and showcased his stutter in his first single, “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop),” which gained surprising traction—due in part, the author posits, to the sheer authenticity of his style and sound—and topped the charts in more than 10 countries. (Unfortunately, Larkin’s career resurgence was cut short in 1999 when he died of lung cancer.) Waggott interweaves her thorough account of Larkin’s career with a thoughtful meditation on how the public perception of, and advocacy for, stuttering has evolved across the 20th and 21st centuries. The result is a worthy tribute to an enigmatic and influential musician. (Feb.)