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Origins of Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Music Uncovered

Tristan Oliver
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To this point, the popular and mostly proven opinion has been that Michael Jackson’s involvement with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is deep–very deep.  Neither the late MJ, his family, or his colleagues are willing to confirm the information, but plenty of research and interviews over the years supports the pop icon’s heavy influence in-game, only to be removed from credits at the onset of a child sex abuse scandal.

But MJ may not have been completely alone.  Evidence uncovered overnight links Brad Buxer, credited on Sonic 3 and a close associate of Jackson’s who toured with him, with an unreleased pop song from the 1980s.  Buxer was once part of The Jetzons, a new age group that formed in 1981.  It was from the dissolution of The Jetzons that Buxer went on to work for Jackson, though not before producing this:

Sound familiar?  The band’s unreleased Hard Times includes the melody of Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone almost to a T.  The original song, however, was not released until 15 years after Sonic 3, part of a compilation of Jetzons songs (which you can purchase on iTunes here, we should add.)

The bottom line: There’s more “pop” in Sonic 3 than we realized, and ties to MJ are even further cemented.  With Sonic researchers still hot on the trail for the perfect missing link, it may only be a matter of time before those involved with Sonic 3’s music finally make the admission many fans’ ears really want to hear.

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Tristan Oliver

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20 Comments

  2. …..Is it odd that the first thing I thought of upon reading this was “Oh great, here comes the mashups.”

  4. That song will for ever keep on making me smile…even on the saddest day. So interesting that it had a different name and origin 😎 and to think of how many remixes this song has had since lol..
    Some great honorable mentions of the ICE CAP ZONE
    NICOCW – http://youtu.be/GeN-mP8MSS4
    JAMENJ – http://youtu.be/l0QziOtndEY
    MIKEBLASTDUDE – http://youtu.be/boXs1x_KhPw
    CONTACTWEBMASTER – http://youtu.be/E-lDqJUMwQg
    MAKLIBEK – http://youtu.be/b-iPcDMbxYQ
    LONGDISTANT ZOROARK http://youtu.be/rR9HNLjm2C0
    THEMARIOMARIO8888 – http://youtu.be/0NhR5UI2R5s
    AND SO MANY MORE LOLZ…

  6. This song, MJ’s Stranger in Moscow, Janet Jackson’s Together Again, and a couple songs from Dreams Come True… Keep the Sonic-like songs coming! =D

  7. Wow, this is an awesome song! The kind of song i really appreciate 🙂 That ‘s a great discovery 😉

  8. “Ties to MJ are even further cemented”? No!

    This just proves what some people including me have been saying all along: some tracks of Sonic 3 have an MJ vibe simply because people worked on them who also produced for MJ and NOT because Michael Jackson himself actually composed a single note of them.

    1. It can’t be denied that he at least composed the credits music.
      B&W: Can you clarify the rumor that Michael had in 1993 composed the music for Sonic 3 video game, for which you havel 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

      1. Oh yes, it can be denied.

        B&W: In the studio, Michael gave you a lot of freedom?
        Buxer: […] Sometimes, he knew exactly what he wanted to hear me sing all the parts of a song. Other times, he let me play until he hears something he likes. This is particularly what happened to songs like Who Is It or Stranger In Moscow.

        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: […] More than any other song that I worked with Michael, Stranger In Moscow is where I made my most artistic leg. I’m not credited as co-composer on this track, but I have worked closely with Michael on the composition and structure of this song … I also played virtually all instruments …

        You don’t have to read between the lines there to see that Buxer actually composed the Ending Theme and Stranger in Moscow himself. What Michael Jackson did there wasn’t composing, if anyting he fulfilled the role of a traditional record producer, who lets the actual composer come up with ideas and then says “I don’t like that”, “this is good”, “let’s put this segment of the song over here instead”, etc.

    2. Brad Buxer already confirmed that he and MJ did the Sonic 3 end credits
      And i don’t give a fuck Launch Base Zone was 100% MJ

  9. I would totally use this if I ever made videos for youtube, just as a bit of an obscure Sonic fan trivia or something. That’ll totally confuse people! XD

  10. here’s an idea maybe…hint hint modders of the Generations if you can do this without getting into a world of $*** over that lol…add it to your mod for an ICE CAP ZONE redo 😉 or imagine this for the daytime stages of Holaska UNLEASHED 😉

  12. ofc you had to bring up the sex scandal… although I’ve read that the reason his name went uncredited was because MJ himself felt it didn’t sound good enough and he didn’t want to be credited for work he wasn’t satisfied with

    1. Actually it’s said that was the reason he stopped working on music for the game while the scandals were the reason he’s not credited for tracks he supposedly already composed. Something like that…

  14. I found this out early yesterday by myself listening to the jetzsons and my mind was blown away. Then checking tssznews i found this xD I suddenly felt spyed or maybe was one of my friends who send this as a piece of news. Great stuff tho.

    But yeah… this wasn’t MJ related at all… this was a unreleased song composed by Brad Buxer (keyboardist of the Jetzsons) for the Jetzsons; he recycled it and turned into Ice Cap Zone 🙂

    And please…. The Jetzsons was NEW-WAVE band not pop and definitely not NEW AGE xD there are totally different styles

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