Something to freak out Michael Jackson haters
 

A little backstory. Sonic 3 & Knuckles was originally composed as a single game, because Sonic 3 & Knuckles were originally meant to be one game, but they were split up to make double the $$$. To prove it, you can find music from Sonic & Knuckles hidden in the Sonic 3 sound test. So, remember. They were composed as one game. Now, back to the point.

Nobody has known for sure who the hell composed the Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sonic & Knuckles music. Here's a little story that has hyped in the old days. A lot of magazines picked up on the rumor that after Dreams Come True broke with Sega after Sonic 2, Sega started looking for a more "American centric" musical star to write the music for Sonic 3. They thought it would drive the hype up out the roof. In accordance with that belief, they supposedly signed Michael Jackson (who was already associated with the company *coughmoonwalkercough*) to write the soundtrack. It was reported in old issues of EGM (look it up yourselves).

Supposedly, MJ (and his song writing staff) wrote the music for the majority of the game, but failed to complete the last 20% or so because Sega killed the deal after MJ's child molestation charges. Sega reps say the music was supposedly scrapped, but I call bullsh*t, because other Sega reps reported that he still got paid. In Sonic 3's credits, most of MJ's core song writing team is credited with his name mysteriously missing. Getting weird? Howard Drossin (Sonic Spinball, Comix Zone) was brought in to finish that last 20% or so of the soundtrack. Play Sonic 3 & Knuckles (locked on) and read the credits. You'll find only Howard Drossin is credited for the soundtrack. Sega covered their tracks removing MJ's writing team completely. Now, play the PC version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. You'll find half the damn soundtrack is altered/replaced presumably for legalities. Making sense now? Now, if you want sources, I'll look the stuff up, but I'm a lazy douche so you'll have to ask.


Supposedly everything after Marble Garden Zone was written by MJ & team, plus the boss themes. Need proof? Play Sonic 3 without Sonic & Knuckles locked on. Get to the first mod-boss (the flame throwing mecha that sets the island on fire). Listen to the boss music. Occasionally you'll hear (though scratchy as hell) a trademark Michael Jackson "Whoo!" in the song at least three times.

Need more proof? Here's the proof you can't argue with. Listen to this clip of Sonic 3's ending theme mixed over top of Michael Jackson's Stranger in Moscow.

Stranger in Moscow meets Sonic 3 ending.

THEY'RE THE SAME DAMN SONG.


I guess you can easily assume Sonic 3's music was written by Michael Jackson and Howard Drossin.

Heh. That's pretty cool.

I've got another one mixed with Ice Cap when I can find it.

*edit*

I actually found a video that proves my point. I'll upload it to Youtube tomorrow.

Chrono Trigger also has music that sounds uncanningly like Rick Astley. Japan dipping into existing music for VGs isnt new. Sonic 3 is the most prolific of 'em

Wasn't the opening music to Megaman 2 identical to some REM song?

Hate Michael jackson and henseforth "freak-ed out"

:tcouch:

Here's the YouTube video.

And here's another.

Sweet Zombie Jesus. The baby dangler tainted one of my favorite console game franchises and I never even knew it.

*shuddering uncontrollably*

I was counting posts until one of you people showed up. :lol:

its weird that you're posting news (if you can call it that), that was noticed years ago.

Aren't you supposed to be some sort of reporter/news hound?

Editorialist, to be exact. I don't post the news. I just bitch about it.

Yeah, I'll say.

I've heard this before, but I'm not convinced. While it's true that it was originally planned for MJ to compose the music, I don't think any of the music in the actual game was composed by him. Several interviews with Sega employees confirmed that his work was removed.

Not quite. Of the 28 tracks used in Sonic 3, people claim that MJ wrote only 9 (32%). And that's not including the Sonic & Knuckles tracks that were also included in Sonic 3, none of which people claim he wrote.

Source?

I don't doubt that some of the people who worked with MJ also worked on Sonic 3's music, but I don't think he wrote any of it himself. Besides, if MJ did compose any of the music, I don't think Sega would risk a lawsuit by removing his name from the credits (which most people probably don't even read).

Well, those credits are just copied over from Sonic & Knuckles, and since the people who worked with MJ didn't write any of the songs in S&K, there was no reason to credit them.

Or, those tracks could have been replaced because they could not be reproduced using MIDI due to the sound samples used in them. Also, the original soundtrack in its entirety remained intact for Sonic Jam (which was recompiled from the original source and was released after S&KC) and all other releases of Sonic 3.

Listen closer, and you can tell that it's not him, it's the same guy who says "Come on!" Speaking of that song, the Act 1 boss theme from S&K is in the game as well, and there's even a trick in Hydrocity where you can hear it in-game. If the Sonic 3 Act 1 boss theme was composed by MJ and they were trying to cover up his work, why wouldn't they use the perfectly good replacement from S&K so that they would have one less track to worry about?

They do sound similar, but the composers for Sonic 3 did work with MJ, so they could have unintentionally borrowed from his song. Besides, if he really did compose that track, wouldn't it kind of cheapen his other song by sounding so similar?

I saw the YouTube videos, and I think the Ice Cap comparison is pretty weak.

Hey... all of this sounds eerily familiar...

Way to debunk it. I'm totally on the fence now. But it isn't uncommon for people to reuse the same music for things, even unintentionally. There's some song that appears in The Muppets Take Manhattan written by Jeff Moss that uses almost the exact same tune he used for a song on Sesame Street called "with Every Beat of my heart." Also, "Part of your world" from the Little Mermaid sounds suspiciously like "Somewhere that's Green" from little Shop of Horrors, also written by the same people (I forget their names at the moment).

So naturally, if they were composers for MJ, they would somehow borrow his music, mayhaps unintentionally. But that's not to say this isn't true, but it doesn't say it is...

Stranger in Moscow was actually from 1996 while Sonic 3 is from 1994 so unintentional borrowing can be ruled out.

Unless MJ's composers borrowed unintentionally FROM Sonic 3.

Maybe the music did make it in (done by the composers, not MJ), and it was changed in other collections ONLY because they would have had to pay them, when coming up with cheaper stuff sounded more finiancially feasable.

Not to be picky here but "Stranger in Moscow" was written by Jackson himself. :D

Nice find. I could've sworn this wasn't the first time I saw this topic being discussed here... :lol:

In that case, we can also rule out the concept that Sonic 3's ending was influenced by Stranger in Moscow. In fact, it now seems like the other way around...

However, like I posted above, the music was only changed in the PC version. Every other version of Sonic 3 released after that retained the original music.