It’s the kind of pairing you could never have predicted. On the one hand, we have Earth Wind and Fire, a name that needs no introduction, and “September,” a 1978 #1 for the Chicago funkmeisters that seems as beloved today as it was way back then.

And, on the other, we have Eek-A-Mouse… who probably requires no introduction, either.  Falling from his upcoming new album, Mouse-Terpieces: The Best of Eek-A-Mouse, “September” is his latest single, and hearing is believing. So here it is….

SINGLE: https://orcd.co/eekamouse_september

Always and forever one of the most visually idiosyncratic and vocally distinctive toasters in the entirety of reggae history, the Mighty Mouse has been peppering the dancehalls with his wild, wired and sometimes just plain weird styles and statements for 50 years now… alnd older ears among us doubtless still remember the first time they heard “Creation,” the backing musicians doing their level best to keep up with the schoolboy Eek’s already-revolutionary scat vocals and “singjay” delivery.

Eek-A-Mouse’s earliest singles were released under his birth name Ripton Joseph Hylton; it would be four years before he assumed that new identity (although he had already been using it as the name for his own record label); his first as Eek-A-Mouse, in 1979, became a hit and there was no stopping him after that.

Or since then, either. According to legend, Eek-A-Mouse took his name from a racehorse he once bet on, but it fit him like the most finely-tailored suit… or whatever other eccentric outfit he chose to wear.  

Mouse-Terpieces: The Best of Eek-A-Mouse has already pricked up ears around the world via its revolutionary reinvention of Michael Jackson’s killer from Thriller,  “Billie Jean.”  Or, if you prefer, by his treatment of Guns n’Roses’ “Sweet Child Of Mine.”  Or even Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.”

But the album is brimming with further fresh surprises, as Eek-A-Mouse burrows deep, too, into his own catalog of past masters and draws vital new vivacity from those songs as well – “Noah’s Ark,” the 1980 Junjo Lawes production that introduced him to audiences outside of Jamaica; the following year’s international smash “Wa-Do-Dem”; the mighty “Ganja Smuggling”; the remarkable “Anarexol”….

Oh, and if you thought Jacko, Axl and Earth Wind and Fire were odd company for the Eek to be keeping, wait until you hear what happens when he collides with Whitney Houston’s immortal “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

Mouse-Terpieces: The Best of Eek-A-Mouse is the kind of title you’d normally associate with a greatest hits package, and it is one of those in many ways.  But it’s also one of his finest, and fun-est albums ever… one of his own career best, in other words.  A mouse-terpiece, then, in every sense of the word.

CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=eek-a-mouse
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/eekamouse

Track listing

1. Ganja Smuggling
2. Anarexol
3. Wa-Do-Dem
4. Israelites
5. Roots, Rock, Reggae
6. Sensee Party
7. Long Time Ago
8. Noah’s Ark
9. September
10. Billie Jean
11. I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
12. I Can See Clearly Now
13. Sweet Child O’ Mine