LONDON, England (CNN) -- As the lights went down in the theater the low murmur built to a thunderous ovation as the odd-looking man in the crumpled suit and bowler hat took to the stage. Tom Waits in Paris on the European leg of his tour. The excitement that greeted the eccentric American singer songwriter Tom Waits' appearance in Edinburgh last month may come as a surprise to the many, who have never heard of him. The 58-year-old has stayed for most of his four-decade career on the edge of the music mainstream. This is despite a showering of critical acclaim and a host of high-profile fans including the movie star Scarlett Johansson, who recently recorded an album of Waits covers.
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Singer songwriter Tom Waits has won critical acclaim for his music
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His strange tales of the seedy side of America have attracted a cult following
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The actress Scarlett Johansson is a fan and recorded a recent tribute album
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Waits counts U.S. writers Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski as influences
He said the record was a search for the "center of Saturday night," a quest he said that @placeholder himself had "relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see."