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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (often shortened to Sonic 3) is a video game that was first released by Sega on February 2, 1994 for the Sega Genesis console (also known as the Mega Drive in Europe, Australia and Japan). Michael Jackson and Brad Buxer worked on this game's soundtrack.

The artists' contributions were merely a speculation for 15 years up until a December 2009 interview between Buxer and the French Black & White magazine where the producer confirmed Michael's involvement.[1]

Music development[]

Michael Jackson with Sonic the Hedgehog

Michael Jackson with Sonic the Hedgehog

Works on the game began in 1993. Around spring of that year, Jackson had a meeting with members of the Sega Technical Institute, which granted him the opportunity to compose the soundtrack to Sonic 3. Michael had previously worked with Sega's division, AM-5 in December of 1992 on Michael Jackson in Scramble Training.

According to Brad Buxer, Michael "wasn't up to doing a whole lot".[2] The only song to actually have Jackson's involvement in it was what would become the "Staff Roll" theme. The musicians crafted the entire composition in only an hour and a half.[3] It would eventually evolve into the hit single "Stranger in Moscow", released years later.[2][4][5]

Main article: Stranger in Moscow

Other tracks featured would be worked on by Brad on Michael's request.[5] "Knuckles' theme", "Hydrocity Zone" (Act 1 & 2), "Carnival Night Zone" (Act 1 & 2) and more are famously among those to feature work put in by Buxer. Some of them even sample Jackson's older work, e.g. "Knuckles' theme" - "Blood on the Dance Floor".[6]

Decline[]

All was going well through the production and Jackson's soundtrack replaced the initial one crafted by Jun Senoue and other members of Sega's sound team.

However, according to Buxer himself, after Jackson got to hear how the compositions sounded like with Sega Genesis' compressed and bitcrushed sound chip, he was so dissatisfied he decided to leave the project completely and wanted his name taken out of the credits. Apparently, he didn't want to be "associated with a product that devalued his music".[1]

In a 2005 interview between HXC and the executive coordinator for Sonic 3 and the general manager of the SEGA Technical Institute, Roger Hector would detail a different kind of story. He stated, that Jackson's scandals over accusations of child sexual abuse caused Sega to drop him from the works.

"Sonic 3 (also called Sonic 3 & Knuckles) was a lot of fun, but it was also very difficult. Michael Jackson was originally brought in to compose all the music for the game, but at the very end, his work was dropped after his scandals became public. This caused a lot of problems and required a lot of reworking. But the game turned out great in the end."
— Roger Hector, HXC, August 2005[7]

Either way, he would go on to be completely uncredited, while Buxer got the opposite treatment. However, the game was so late in development, that his and Buxer's soundtrack was kept implemented into Sonic 3. A composer, Howard Drossin would be brought in near the end of the game's development to have the music cleaned up before release.

Legal issues[]

Due to legal issues with the Michael Jackson Estate and such, if re-released, Sonic 3 would feature mostly a different soundtrack, specifically a recreation of what would be Jun Senoue's demo cues. The examples of this can be heard in the 1996 Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC (which used stock MIDI instruments) and the 2022 game, Sonic Origins.

Some ports however would feature the original music. Best example can be heard on compilations such as Sonic Mega Collection (2002) and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009) (Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL regions). Additionally, it's speculated, that the infamous mobile port of Sonic 3 didn't make it past development stages due to the legal reasons regarding music.

Discovery[]

Due to the musicians being uncredited, the involvement of Michael composing any of the music initially started off as only a rumor. Famously, the investigation into the soundtrack's development began through a YouTube video by Qjimbo, Michael Jackson's Sonic 3, uploaded in 2006. The video went viral, gaining over a million views by Summer 2006, barely a year after the website was even created. It helped the mystery attract attention of both the Sonic and Jackson forums.

As it was discovered, not only many of the tracks shared similarities with Jackson's songs, nearly all of the credited music composers have at some point worked with Michael Jackson or Brad Buxer. One of them, C. Cirocco Jones, happened to credit Brad Buxer and Michael Jackson on his website on a song "The Water" for Sonic the Hedgehog, seemingly referring to "Hydrocity Zone". Rick Desilets, the director of the channel The D-Pad got in contact with Jones to ask him about his involvement with both Jackson and the soundtrack itself. Less than an hour later, Ciorocco gave him an answer, confirming the questions and stating he owns recordings of Michael humming through phone calls, messages and ideas the artist would send to Record One.

In December 2009, Buxer participated in an interview with the French Michael Jackson-themed magazine, Black & White. There, after many years of speculation, the producer confirmed Michael's involvement.[1]

"I've never played and I do not know what the developers have kept the tracks on which Michael and I have worked, but we did compose the music playing Michael called me at the time for give him a helping hand on this project, and that's what I did. And if he is not credited for composing the music, because he was not happy with the result sound coming out of the console. At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued and his music ..."
— Brad Buxer, Black & White magazine, December 2009[8]

In 2013, Game Trailers would release their "Pop Fiction: Season 4: Episode 39: Sonic 3: Michael Jackson" video on YouTube with The D-Pad himself releasing "A Brief History of Michael Jackson's Sonic the Hedgehog 3" three years later.

On November 16, 2019 a prototype of Sonic 3 found its way online. This included Jun Senoue's original soundtrack, created prior to Michael joining the project.[9]

Yuji Naka's confirmation[]

Until April of 2022, the mystery had stayed mostly quiet. At that time, a trailer was released for a then-upcoming installment in the series, Sonic Origins.[10] The game is a compilation of the first four main-line Sonic the Hedgehog games, including Sonic 3. As aforementioned, this version of Sonic 3 would feature Jun Senoue's soundtrack rather than Buxer's and Jackson's. However, the music used for this remaster wouldn't feature the original cues, rather a recreation of what they sounded like. The decision brought controversy and disappointment to the fans, including the co-creator of Sonic himself.

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Yuji Naka on X (June 23, 2022)

On June 23, 2022 Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog revealed his concern over Michael's music not being featured, even though Sega used "Billie Jean" in a promo video only days prior.[11] This seemingly served as the closest to an official confirmation for Michael Jackson's involvement in the Sonic 3 soundtrack.

"Oh my god, the music for Sonic 3 has changed, even though SEGA Official uses Michael Jackson's music."
— Yuji Naka, X, June 23, 2023[12]

However, when it comes to Sega itself, there seems to be a non-disclosure agreement among the company, as to this day, they have never officially confirmed Michael's work on the soundtrack.

Trivia[]

  • Famously, the theme for IceCap Zone was rumored to have been inspired from "Smooth Criminal" or "Who Is It". This was proven to be false however, as it was discovered the track was inspired by a then-unreleased 1982 song "Hard Times" by Brad Buxer's former band, The Jetzons. Michael had nothing to do with it and the original track itself would be released in 2008.[13]
  • Howard Drossin actually thought he'd be working with Jackson himself, but ended up only becoming the "cleanup guy".

References[]

Videogames
"Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" • "Michael Jackson: The Experience" • "Michael Jackson in Scramble Training" • "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" • "Space Channel 5" • "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2"
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