Did Michael Jackson really compose the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3?
Personally, I don't believe he did. Jackson worked with several composers who worked with the Sonic team, but didn't do it himself.
Now, there is a large argument for him having done it:
http://kotaku.com/5418198/yes-michael-jackson-did-work-on-sonic-the-hedg...
The song from the credits of Sonic 3 does sound oddly similar to his song Stranger in Moscow. However, I think this is either coincidence, or the ending theme from Sonic 3 was sampled in the song in question. The argument is either he was unsatisfied with the way the Sega rendered sound (though he OK'd Moonwalker), or it was because Sega wanted to distance itself from his molestation charges.
We already know that video games and music have a mutually beneficial relationship. For instance, Elecman is a Journey fan. And we don't even need to get started on the Mother/Earthbound series. But in this example, the argument for MJ and Sonic 3 is the other way around. The music was in the game first, and then the argument emerged after MJ recorded new albums.
I think this would make a great video for CotGW to do. Fully fleshing out the argument.
What do you guys think?
I read about this shortly after his passing. I wouldn't be surpised if he did. It would have been somethign Sega would have markted to sell consoles and games. At the time Sega did everything they could think of to get kids to buy their console over the Nintendo console.
I'm not surethe molestation charges would have played any role in his name being taken off the game because I'm not sure this was an issue for Jackson when Sonic 3 came out.
Point of interest, as I type this i see an ad off to the side for kids costumes and what appears to be a child in the suit from Thriller...
It's not really possible to know the truth about the whole story but just by listening to the music you could tell that it was at the very least inspired by M.J.
The story I've heard is that he couldn't be in the credits for some legal reason but he wanted the music to be in the games anyway. All of this is pure speculation of course.
It's my favorite soundtrack of any Sonic game so that makes me want to believe that Michael Jackson wrote it but its hard to believe they would keep something like that in secret. For Sega at the time it would have been a big deal and they would want to make that fact know to sell even more copies.
We will probably know the truth in some years.
Nice topic btw
Well, I can't say for sure either way, though I could certainly believe it. At the very least, there seems to be some precedent for a musical connection between Sonic and a Jackson:
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They both grab the attention of little children?
Too soon?
Hey, I remember the heydey of Michael Jackson. I was alive then-- unlike a lot of the people who are pretending to be fans now that he's dead.
I just don't believe he composed the music for Sonic 3. Just a large case of sampling.
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He totally did.
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