Confirmed: Michael Jackson involved with Sonic 3 soundtrack

3 December, 2009 13 April, 2021

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Video Game Music artist dma over on the VGMdb forums has revealed today that the French Michael Jackson magazine “Black & White” confirmed Jackson’s involvement with composing music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in their interview with Brad Buxer who also worked on the project:

B&W: Can you clarify the rumor that Michael had in 1993 composed the music for Sonic 3 video game, for which you have been credited?

Buxer: I’ve never played the game so I do not know what tracks on which Michael and I have worked the developers have kept, but we did compose music for the game. Michael called me at the time for help on this project, and that’s what I did.
And if he is not credited for composing the music, it’s 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 his music…

B&W: One of the surprising things in this soundtrack is that you can hear the chords from Stranger in Moscow, which is supposed to have been composed later…

Buxer: Yes, Michael and I had composed those chords for the game, and it has been used as base for Stranger in Moscow.

Unfortunately, Buxer only confirms Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s End Credits as having chords which he and Jackson composed. However, I had the chance to meet Jun Senoue, composer of the series since Sonic 3, in September at Video Games Live Tokyo. He could neither confirm nor deny Jackson’s involvement, but he himself noted that trademark Michael Jackson “whoo”s were evident in Sonic 3’s Knuckles’ Theme (later changed in Sonic & Knuckles).

Jackson’s involvement in composing some of the soundtrack had been long-rumoured and much debated in the Sonic community. For an interesting read, the Sonic Retro wiki collates every last piece of evidence on the subject.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

Tags Michael Jackson SEGA Sonic The Hedgehog (Series)Sonic The Hedgehog 3 TSSZ News

Danny Russell

Danny has been gaming since he received his Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch back in the '80s. As time went on this was replaced by a Game Boy, Mega Drive and Saturn, until he realised that there was no point favouring one console per generation. He had to have all of them. After being brought up in Gibraltar and studying in Scotland, Danny travelled to Japan to study the art of the UFO catcher for five years. As of 2021 he kicks around as SEGA's retro focused Community Manager.

14 Comments

Yay, Jacko! I knew it, the music always was so … Jackson! ^^ Great news! 🙂 At least SOME confirmation that he worked on the games OST!

I totally wouldn´t be surprised if other tracks would come from him aswell! 🙂

It´s really sad that Jackson isn´t here to earn the credit he deserves, I know what you think now, I´m getting sick of the peeps who still cry about his death myself, but, I just cannot help it but feel a lil sad, that this comes out NOW! 🙁 The least thing Sega could do is give him credit now. But, if it´s true that he didn´t want to get credited then I think it´s fine how it is.
I´m asking myself now, did Michael not want to be credited or did Sega not want him to be credited because of the lalalalalala stuff that was going on back then and Michael just accepted that…? Hmmm… I don´t know what to believe. Both things could be a factor! :/
Anyway, I don´t wanna bother thinking about this stuff to much, at least nice to know that he was involved with the OST! 🙂

Wow, he did have quite an ego. I mean, he didn’t want to be credited because the Genesis sounds didn’t meet his standards? Damn that’s messed up.

Well if it hadn’t he would have sued back then, but what can you do? The man is still a genius.

Was, anyway…

@Soul Gauge:music is a from of immortalisation 😉 No ‘was’ about it.

just for the hell of it… hello ppl 😛 lol

btw I`m not learning (When on certin computers at school) to photoshop pics! Then print em! like that french artis guy.. cool! 🙂 I get better one day, or maybe its because the school only has Phtoshop 3.0 and not those pure awsome ones. is it csn or something? ah well one day i`ll learn how to mak an master pic. 😆

Finally we can lay that rumor to rest. He did it cased closed.

Look no further than the Sonic 3 credits and the midboss theme

Thing is that when Sonic 3 came out Sega put the mantle of silence over Micheal Jackson’s involvements with the game’s music. That is because it was at the time he became known for child abuse and Sega didn’t want to have this stigma on their product.
There’s also a good video on YouTube called Michael Jackson’s Sonic 3. Check it out.