Scatman's World

Scatman's World is debut album by American musician Scatman John, recorded after the worldwide success of his debut single "Scatman". It is somewhat of a concept album dealing with an imaginary Utopian society named "Scatland". He speaks about this at length in the liner notes: "If you're wondering where Scatland is, you don't have to look too far; it's between your deepest dreams and warmest wishes".

The songs deal with various elements of American society and many of them draw on Scatman's personal experience; "Popstar" is a tongue-in-cheek number about the shallow nature of stardom, "Quiet Desperation" deals with the homeless problem and "Time (Take Your Time)" is a harrowing song about his time in Alcoholics Anonymous.

The album climaxes with "Song of Scatland", a ballad dedicated to the imaginary kingdom that was notoriously released as a single. "Hi, Louis" closes the album proper with traditional scatting over jazz piano and steady beats; the title is probably a reference to Louis Armstrong, who he later paid tribute to on the track "Everybody Jam!".

Scatman's World was very popular internationally, particularly in Japan, where it reached No. 2 and stayed on the charts for 40 weeks, selling over 1,500,000 copies overall.

Track listing

1. "Welcome to Scatland" – 0:49
2. "Scatman's World" – 3:40
3. "Only You" – 3:42
4. "Quiet Desperation" – 3:51
5. "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" – 3:30
6. "Sing Now!" – 3:38
7. "Popstar" – 4:13
8. "Time (Take Your Time)" – 3:41
9. "Mambo Jambo" – 3:30
10. "Everything Changes" – 4:38
11. "Song of Scatland" – 5:05
12. "Hi, Louis" – 2:34
13. "Scatman" [Game Over Jazz] – 5:03 (Bonus track)
14. "Scatman" [Spike Mix] – 6:43 (Japan bonus track)

Charts