Flashback Friday: Bust-a-Groove - Shorty & the EZ Mouse | That uncredited Crystal Kay song

Way back when a rhythm game by the name of Bust-a-Groove was released on PlayStation. They really shoulda given that game a whole different title. The confusion between the Puzzle Bobble game which was called Bust-a-Move in the US and across Europe, and Bust-a-Groove having the title Bust-a-Move in Japan!? I cannot.

HENNYWAY.

Bust-a-Groove was a dance rhythm game with amazing soundtrack that I stay listening to until this very day. "Transform" is an R&B classic. "Sora to Ume to Niji to Yume" still bumps. But this here is about THE best song in the game, "Shorty and the EZ Mouse". Which is performed by an uncredited Crystal Kay.

None of the artists on the Bust-a-Groove soundtrack are credited (something that was changed with the soundtrack of the sequel), so I had no idea who was singing the song. But at least 10 years ago it had surfaced that the singer was Crystal Kay, something that Otaquest covered and confirmed in 2018. As soon as I heard this new, I thought 'FUCK. OF COURSE IT'S CRYSTAL SINGING! How did I not every put the two together?!'.

I played Bust-a-Groove and fell for "Shorty and the EZ Mouse" long before I ever got into Crystal Kay. But even though I still listened to the song post discovery of Crystal, I just never retrospectively clocked that it was her singing the song. And now when I listen to it, I wonder how in the hell I never realised. Perhaps I was so used to Crystal's voice as it was from around 2006 (during Call Me Miss...) which is distinctly different to how it was during the early 2000s (around C.L.L Crystal Lover Light and 637 -Always & Forever-) that it never registered.

Crystal Kay herself has never made much of a deal that she is the singer of the song, although nobody ever seems to ask her about her musical endeavours outside of what she's released herself. First of all, she is uncredited on the song. Second of all, Bust-a-Groove was such a niche game which had such a limited release that it was never going to be something that Crystal was ever going to be asked about. Although Crystal Kay did perform the iconic "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII at the fucking Royal Albert Hall for Distant Worlds (I was there, and my wig flew clean off as soon as she walked out, because I had no idea a bitch was gonna be there) and nobody asks her about that either. Crystal needs to pass through this shithole blog. I'd ask THEE questions.

Bust-a-Groove had an English and Japanese soundtrack. The songs across both are the same, the only difference is the language. Although it isn't as simple as one soundtrack being entirely in English and another being in Japanese. One of the songs on the English version of the soundtrack is unchanged and in Japanese. And several of the songs on the Japanese soundtrack are in English and went through no changes for the English soundtrack. But "Shorty and the EZ Mouse" was not one of these songs. The version on the Japanese soundtrack isn't sung by Crystal Kay at all. Strange given that we all know that she can and has always been able to sing in Japanese. 

So, Crystal Kay has a whole song out in the world that some fans may not have heard before, or may have heard and loved and had no idea she was singing it. *Raises hand*

Crystal shoulda flipped and covered "Shorty & the EZ Mouse" for I Sing. Bust-a-Groove fans woulda flipped and Crystal woulda got some promo on video game site.

As I post this, the Bust-a-Groove original soundtrack is not available on streaming. At least not globally. But it fucking should be. Especially given that it was produced and released by Avex in the first place.

🎮 Video Game Music Playlists: VGM | VGM: Easy Listening
🎧 Crystal Kay Playlists: This is Crystal Kay | Crystal Kay: Ballads | Euphoria