Still Rough, Still Tough: Stranger Cole Returns With a Genre-Defying New Album

When the young Wilburn Theodore Cole was first nicknamed “Stranger,” it was because he didn’t resemble anybody else in the family. And when he first stepped into a Kingston recording studio in 1962, he was a stranger there as well—just another teenage hopeful on a seethingly competitive music scene.

Nobody could have guessed, let alone predicted, that close to 65 years later, that same Stranger would be one of the most familiar, best-loved, and most recognized names and faces in reggae history. And with his latest album Rough and Tough scheduled for release on October 24, that familiarity is only going to grow.

Rough and Tough is Stranger unleashed—exercising that still exquisite voice across thirteen tracks and placing his unmistakable stamp on such beloved (but surely unexpected!) classics as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and War’s “Low Rider.”

He dives deep into the reggae and ska songbook for an impassioned take on Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” an astonishing reinvention of The Beat’s “Mirror In The Bathroom,” Prince Buster’s “Madness,” and—perhaps most audaciously of all—Symarip’s 1960s shocker “Skinhead Moonstomp.”

Stranger also revisits his own mighty catalog, starting with the 1963 anthem “Rough and Tough” (originally recorded with Duke Reid for his idiosyncratically-spelled Dutchess label), and continuing through the fierce 1966 cut “Drop The Ratchet,” 1968’s game-changing “Bangarang”—often hailed as the first “true” reggae track—and the soulful “When I Call Your Name,” first recorded as a duet with the fabulous Patsy Todd.

And then there’s “Crying Every Night,” released today as Stranger’s latest single. Originally a 1971 smash recorded with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics for Byron Smith—a pioneer producer who inadvertently birthed the very first dub record—it’s a timeless performance brought vibrantly back to life.

Stranger is clearly proud of this new chapter:

“I’m feeling great to have worked on this great project,” he says. “I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I have put all my love into it.”

Rough and Tough – Track Listing:

1. Crying Every Night (These Eyes)

2. Just Like a River

3. Rough and Tough

4. Low Rider

5. Bangarang

6. Madness

7. Drop the Ratchet

8. Skinhead Moonstomp

9. Mirror in the Bathroom

10. When I Call Your Name

11. Everybody Wants to Rule the World

12. No Woman No Cry

13. Don’t Stop Believin’