Michael Jackson’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Michael Jackson’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 scoring (Video by Qjimbo)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JbVM-l2Oku4

One of the people in charge of developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 revealed in a interview that at one point Michael Jackson composed the music to Sonic 3. So, now we know that Jackson wrote music for the game, however the same guy stated that Jackson’s music had to be replaced, at great cost. The reason behind Jackson’s replacement was because MJ was in a full sex scandal when the game was in development. Sega panicked and didn’t want the scandal to have negative effects on their game.

Now, it could have ended there, but it doesn’t. You see some of Jackson’s tracks and cord progressions made it into the game. The mini-boss song has actual voice samples from Jackson. I believe that Sega paid MJ for his music and used his music, but agreed to remove his name completely from the project. While not all the tracks are his, this video shows that some of them are his for sure. There’s no doubt that the ending credits song is his.

The video above does a great job of showing the similarities to MJ’s music and Sonic 3. I always felt S3 was the best Sonic game, with the best music. Launch Base Zone, Icecap Zone, and Carnival Night Zone just sound too much like his work. We should also remember that MJ has a long relationship with Sega, he plays a huge role in Space Channel 5 part 2.

Here's the original Stranger in Moscow video. BTW, it's a very good song. It shows the true genius he really was. The man can sing and write music like no one else.

This page will give you more info into the whole MJ/Sonic 3 thing. Make sure to download the Stranger in Moscow remix with some of the Sonic music in it. The remix song is very good.

Ideas are never thrown away, but reused for later.