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{{quote|''"Bada bada bwi ba ba bada bo. Baba ba da bo. Bwi ba ba bada bo. Baba ba da bo."''|'''[[Scatman John]]''', ''"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2wMsnE2cvI Scatman!]"''}}
Scatting is vocalization that isn't lyrics. It is, for the most part, improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables, whistling, [[Careful with That Axe|screaming]], or even humming without words at all. Scatting gives the singer a chance to improvise his own melody and rhythm, basically creating the vocal equivalent to an instrumental solo.
Compare [[Indecipherable Lyrics]] and [[Word Salad Lyrics]]. Many [[Lyrical Tic|Lyrical Tics]] are this.
{{examples}}
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** His song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3-EwMJDQek Dang Me]" may be his best example, as it ''opens'' with scatting, and has further scatting all through the rest of it.
* Installation from the soundtrack of ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]''.
* [[Goldfrapp]]'s songs ''Voicething'', ''Slippage'', ''Oompa Radar'' and ''Felt Mountain''- although the last two have lyrics that are basically 'Do do do do do', ''Slippage'' has her clearly saying, 'La la la la la la la' and 'Oh, yeah' before [[Careful with That Axe|screaming.]]
* [[Orbital]] had several songs like this: "Dŵr Budr", "Out There Somewhere?" (both featuring the aforementioned Alison Goldfrapp), and "Way Out".
* Ray Barretto's song ''Acid''.
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* [[Lamb of God]]'s "Black Label". Even with the lyrics handy, you can hardly make out what Randy Blythe is singing there.
* Focus' song "Hocus Pocus" has a Dutch man yodeling as the only lyrics. And it's [[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome]].
* It picked up real words by the time it appeared on an album, but the lyrics to [[Weezer]]'s "Burndt Jamb" were originally just "do" and "ah". The ''Maladroit'' version did still retain some scatting in the backing vocals ("doot do doo doo").
* Projects related to musician [[Mike Patton]] almost always feature at least a little bit of this. As the title might suggest, Mr Bungle's "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz". "Chemical Marriage" off of the same album is just scat singing. At one point in time you could have sent two dollars to a P.O. box listed in the Disco Volante liner notes to get some stickers and the "lyrics" to "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz" and "Chemical Marriage."
** Another Mike Patton project, Fantomas, plays this straight. Their self-titled debut features Patton singing on every track without ever uttering a single word. ''Suspended Animation,'' which came after, has him using his voice to emulate sound effects from [[The Golden Age of Animation]].
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** And "One Perfect Sunrise" by Orbital, which features her.
* The instrumental version of [[CAKE (band)|CAKE]]'s ''Arco Arena''. No real lyrics, just John McCrea occasionally muttering something or interjecting with his usual [[Lyrical Tic|Lyrical Tics]] ("Yah!").
* [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] instrumental "Flying" with no words aside from chanting "Lah, la-la, la-laaa" near the end.
** "Girl" has a rather amusing background harmonic vocal accompaniment of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|'tit tit tit tit']] appear before the chorus.
** "Hey Jude" has about four minutes of "nana na na".
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** Brazil has arguably an entire genre for this: axé music! "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWsS2w3-h_c Aê aê aê aê!Ê ê ê ê! Ô ô ô ô ô ô ô ô!]"
*** So much that the question "[http://www.frazz.com.br/frase.html/Casseta_e_Planeta-O_que_seria_da_music-88134 What would Bahian music be without the vowels?]" already was asked.
* [[Fleet Foxes]]' "Heard Them Stirring", which has nothing but harmonized "whoa-oh"'s for vocals.
* "Mah Na Mah Na".
** Doo doo, doo-doo-doo!
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* [[Cab Calloway]] was famous for this. He admitted that he first began singing 'scat' it was because he'd forgotten the words to a song, but after it went over well with his audience he began to purposely write it into his songs.
* [[Ska]]-swing band Cherry Poppin' Daddies has some scatting in the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IqH3uliwJY Zoot Suit Riot] right before the coda (basically during the bridge).
* The [[Gorillaz]] song "Rockit" consists mostly of "blah blah blah".
* [[Frou Frou]] really liked this trope.
* Insects vs. Robots, ''Sacred Moose''.
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* Very nearly the complete works of Meredith Monk except for ''Do You Be''. The only actual lyrics in Monk's brilliant "Book of Days" are a humming "these things, these things, these things" and a rhythmic, rising-and-falling "come and go and go and come and come and go and go and come". I am ready to swear there is an entire stanza of "hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop pah, hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop pah ... "
* "Give It Up" by KC and the Sunshine Band. "Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na, baby, give it up..."
* [[REM|R.E.M.'s]] "Endgame" is mostly instrumental, aside from some wordless harmonizing and Michael Stipe singing variants on "ba ba ba" a few times.
* "Rubber Biscuit" by the Chips. If you don't know it, you might be more familiar with the Blues Brothers versions. [http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/tracking/pc/rubber_biscuit.htm The original does have lyrics of sorts, though...]
* "Centerfold" by the [[J Geils Band]] has a Scatting part right after the second chorus and one near the end.
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* [[Woven Hand]]'s "Slota Prow" has David Eugene Edwards [[wikipedia:Glossolalia|speaking in tongues]], set to music.
* The refrain of Opus III's "It's a Fine Day": "Nanananana nee na nee nah". This part was [[Sampled Up]] ( [[Subliminal Seduction|backmasked]]) by Orbital in "Halcyon".
* [[Rise Against]] actually performed a [[Scatting|Simlish]] version of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAf5XTOrPM4 Savior (youtube link)] written for a Sims 3 advertising campaign. It is remarkably similar to the actual version ("it kills me not to know this" becomes "ta kil me naka no dis", for example), suggesting that either Simlish is closer to English than thought or that Rise Against is unimaginative.
** There are other Scatting song versions too, including Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold." Quite a number of the lyrics are also remarkably similar to the original.
* "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" by Caramba.
* Soul Coughing songs contain a little bit of scatting on occasion in general, but the most Scat-heavy song is "Paint", which ended up that way as sort of a [[Throw It In]] moment: Mike Doughty had written chorus lyrics, but not any verses, so he just started spouting rhythmic nonsense over the verse section, then decided it sounded cooler that way.
** Doughty's live album ''Smofe + Smang'' features an early version of "Grey Ghost" where he admits he didn't write any lyrics for the bridge yet, so he has to sing "fake words". The title of the album actually comes from part of that very same scat bridge.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGM0-G8x_pg Haru Mamburu] by the Russian band Nogu Svelo! has "lyrics" made of vaguely English-like gibberish.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ2lWyTi0oY Bla Bla Bla] by Gigi D'Agostino ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]), and the refrain of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjP1Z8ffrbc&feature=related Elisir(Your Love)].
* [[Nirvana]]'s "Tourette's" has no lyrics, just lots of screaming that sounds vauguely like it might be lyrics. Of course, given that some people think all Nirvana lyrics sound like "[[Indecipherable Lyrics|garbled, vaguely word-like gibberish]]", many are convinced that is also true of this song, and that there are real lyrics there if you listen hard enough. There aren't. It's just gibberish.
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* "Witch Doctor": "Ooh ee, ooh ah ah, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang..."
* [[Death Metal]] vocals are rarely if ever this. More likely [[Indecipherable Lyrics]].
* Cows' version of the ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'' title theme substitutes the string part of the original with vocalist Shannon Selberg singing "ooh".
* A good part of the lyrics of [[Queen]]'s Under Pressure.
* The refrains of many Eurodance and Bubble Gum Dance songs used this, such as "oh la oh la eh"(La Bouche's "Sweet Dreams"), "iai iai iai"(Smile.dk's "Butterfly"), "na na na na way-oh"(Alice Deejay's "Will I Ever"), "li da di da di da di"(Amber's "Sexual"), etc.
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* Notably, the Tro Lo Lo song.
* [[My Chemical Romance]] has a new song ''called'' "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)". Guess how the chorus goes.
** There's also a version literally ''in'' [[The Sims|Simlish]].
** From the same album is "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" which also has parts of the chorus that come with five na's.
* [[Hanson]] song "Mmmbop".
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* [[Aretha Franklin]] is well-known for scatting in pretty much all her songs. Especially since the 80's. Even on a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
* [[Yes]] could really make this work when they used it, e.g. on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UivtWeJgvMg "Leave It"] from ''90125''.
** Trevor Rabin's ''90124'', a collection of old demo versions of songs he'd later record with Yes, included an excerpt of an acoustic version of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" recorded before he'd really written any verse lyrics. Needless to say, it's sort of amusing to hear the first few lines rendered as "move yourself, ya da da da da da, ya da dada da da dada".
* King Crimson weren't immune. "Easy Money" featured the repeated line "Ooooo da di dow dow, da diddy dow, da dow dow- da do doooo -"
* The Rhinemaidens from Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' cycle engage in this frequently. ''Weia! Waga! Wagala weia!''
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* Most vocals in spacesynth are vocodered scat-singing, although a few songs like Laserdance's "Digital Dream" have real, albeit [[Indecipherable Lyrics|hard to decipher]], lyrics.
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yAI5_YXNqI 13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110]" by [[Iamamiwhoami]] is [[Fan Nickname|nicknamed "papachoo"]] for its meaningless lyrics.
* [[Ministry]]'s "Jesus Built My Hotrod"; five minutes of [[Motor Mouth]] Scatting ("ding-a-ding-dang my dang-along-ling-long"?) to an equally energized background.
* [[The Crystalline Effect]]'s "Where The World Ends".
* [[Prince Buster]] does some semi-scatting in the song "[[Al Capone]]", by making "Chk-a-tk" noises to mimic a snare drum, along with "Hik" noises towards the end of the song. This scatting had an effect on later [[Ska]] songs.
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* [[Jaga Jazzist]]: "Swedenborgske Rom" has an ''a cappella'' lyricless interlude. And "All I Know Is Tonight" has lyricless singing in unison with the main horn riff.
* Scott Walker starts doing this over the fade out of "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalnist Regime)".
* Towards the end of [[The Doors]]' "Cars Hiss By My Window", Jim Morrison takes a wordless vocal solo where he imitates a wah-wah guitar (or possibly a harmonica) with his voice: "whoooh, wha-wha-whaoo-ooh...".
* [[Jason Mraz]] does quite a bit of this, especially in his live performances. It features at least once in the majority of his songs.
* [[Led Zeppelin]] does this in "D'yer Mak'er" and "The Ocean".
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== Anime ==
* In [[Macross Plus]], Some of Sharon Apple's songs are in a made-up "language" of nonsense words chosen only for their sound and the emotional tone they conveyed.
** Common in Yoko Kanno's soundtracks in general. She's done the same thing in ''[[Earth Maiden Arjuna]]'', ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' and ''[[Escaflowne]]''.
** In a similar vein, some of the pseudo-Latin song in the soundtrack of [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]] qualifies. The best-known example would be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MaQ6m6mho8 Credens Justitiam].
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== Film ==
* Played with in ''[[The Simpsons]] Movie'': as [[Green Day]] perform the Simpsons theme, the 'lyrics' are shown on their prompter as a scrolling wall of "Da Da Da Da Da Da..."
* Some of the ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' songs fit. Try [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxs2vS2gJ-c&feature=player_embedded Exploration] and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIUVHtLC08&feature=player_embedded end credits song].
* [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s one and only speaking role as [[The Tramp]] in ''[[Modern Times]]'' features him singing a gibberish song that sounds vaguely French/Italian. Chaplin didn't want the character to be limited by language barriers.
* Most of the musical score of ''Winged Migration'' is Scat... sometimes it's even hard to distinguish from percussions. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc_qpk2d-ao&feature=PlayList&p=36636ACDD5863876&playnext=1&index=17 The trailer].
** The composer, Bruno Coulais, also did the ''[[Coraline]]'' soundtrack.
* "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" from ''[[High School Musical]] 2'' has the Hawaiian gibberish lines "maka hiki mala hini hu" and "waka waka waka niki pu pu".
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== Live Action TV ==
* Many of the musical cues in ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' are of Miley scat-singing whoa-ohs and yeah-yeahs for a line or two.
* The theme for ''[[Farscape]]'' has an alien version of this trope.
* In ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', music snob Howard mocks Vince for being confused and unsettled by the formless flow of jazz. He starts scatting, which causes Vince to panic and punch him.
* For what was believed to be one week only, the [[Theme Tune]] to the game show ''[[All Star Blitz]]'' had some scatting mixed in. The results were… [http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/All%20Star%20Blitz/ALLSTARBLITZ.mp3 surreal].
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== Video Games ==
* The Grox Empire's anthem in ''[[Spore]]''.
* Much of the music in the ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games features wordless [[Ominous Latin Chanting|chanting]] as a backing track. No words, just "Oooo-oooo-oooo-OOOOOO-ooo..."
** Even the regular ''[[Metroid]]'' games [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98RdRDaOsNg have it at times].
* ''[[Loco Roco]]'' used this for all its music in order to have a universally accepted soundtrack that wouldn't need translating. The nonsense sung by the Rocos sounds uncannily like real language due to the way it's structured, but it's just cute-sounding gibberish.
* The sound "Giant Egg" from ''[[Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg]]'' is mostly composed of children going "La la la la la la la lalala..." They do spell "G-I-A-N-T E-G-G" at one point, but that's it.
* A number of the playable songs in ''[[Magicians Quest Mysterious Times]]'' feature random vocals. "Cerulean" has a guy yelling "Yeaaah, behbeh!" at several points, and "Corusican Betrayal" has a wordless soprano wail in it, for example.
* ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]''
* Venus's song in ''[[Earthbound]]''.
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** Technically it has lyrics - it is part of an opera, after all - but the SNES couldn't really handle extended voice recordings, so they're displayed as subtitles while the MIDI voice synth goes "ooo-OOOOO-ooo-OOOO".
* In ''[[Animal Crossing]]'', K.K. Slider's singing consists of "we" "oh" and other such sounds. His voice is even an instrument in ''Wii Music''.
* The Grand Fonic Hymn from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', made up of seven short verses, uses single-syllable words that don't come from any particular language, used to explain why only the first verse works like a magic spell. Each verse apparently has a "deeper meaning" that must be learned before its magic can manifest.
* As [[The Sims]] characters [[Speaking Simlish|speak Simlish]], the songs heard on the radio are also sung in gibberish, in all three installments and their respective expansions. The Sims: Unleashed hired a real band (Zydeco Flames) to perform their songs in Simlish, and The Sims 2: University started the now-famous series tradition of getting a whole selection of artists to re-record their songs in Simlish for each expansion.
* On ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'''s pre-game tutorial level, there's a version of the theme song that just has the "na na na na na na na" for vocals, on top of the backing beat from the NES version of ''[[Lode Runner]]''.
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[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Scatting]]
[[Category:Word Salad
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