Michael Jackson's Secret Sonic 3 Shame
Over at the increasingly vital YouTube, there's a new fan-made video exploring Michael Jackson's contribution to the Sonic 3 soundtrack, a concept that at first sounds wacky, but, when confronted with overt musical evidence, notably less so.
The detective work surrounding the video started after an interview with Roger Hector of Sega, in which he revealed: "Sonic 3 (also called Sonic & Knuckles) was a lot of fun, but it was also very difficult. Michael Jackson was originally brought in to compose all the music for the game, but at the very end, his work was dropped after his scandals became public. This caused a lot of problems and required a lot of reworking. But the game turned out great in the end."
Thus, the video, a transcript for which is available on the same forums, and which notes, among other things, that the "...piece of music played at the end of Sonic 3, bears a strong resemblance to the michael jackson song 'Stranger In Moscow'", and that "In the Sonic and Knuckles collection [for PC], some of the music has been replaced... All these tracks in the original Sonic 3 have one thing in common, they all use various "Hey" and "Go" type vocal sounds, which is a trademark of Michael Jackson." Yay, conspiracy theories are plenty of fun, and this one seems on the money.
Comments
I didn't really "get" some of the things mentioned. Specifically, their Ice Cap Zone comparison -- really, they sound nothing alike. As someone on YouTube stated, they were really stretching it with that one -- and, Ice Cap Zone is a whole different style of music than anything Michael Jackson has done.
It also could've used a better narrator -- I could barely understand a lot of what he was saying.
Posted by: 573 | March 27, 2006 1:43 AM
For the record, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were two different games. However, you could connect Sonic 2 & 3 to Sonic & Knuckles via Lock-On Technology. This would allow you to play as Knuckles in those games.
Posted by: Justin Doub | March 27, 2006 5:21 AM
I just read the forum that you linked to. I'm guessing that what I said only applies to the US and that Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were combined for the European release. Learn something new everyday.
Posted by: Justin Doub | March 27, 2006 5:24 AM
Actually no, they weren't. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were released separately in Europe as well.
Read the wiki page. The two games were meant to be released as one, however, due to time constraints they were split up.
Posted by: nem | March 27, 2006 6:59 AM
Woah, I'm on a full game site @_@ I never expected this a ALL. Sorry about the narration, but I wanted to get it done in a day rather than spending tooo much time over this thing :P
But yeah it was only meant for the tiny sonic community site I visit, as a way of documenting all the various similarities people have noticed in a nicely presented way. And then it exploded and I get people critising my voice and editing skills!
Still I'm amazed it got this popular.
Posted by: Qjimbo | March 27, 2006 6:23 PM
"Yay, conspiracy theories are plenty of fun, and this one seems on the money."
That's not true. There were rumors about Michael Jackson having done the music since long time ago. This video was made only for comparing the similarities between them. There isn't any intention of profit or legal trouble or anything. It was just a comparsion between the musics, nothing more.
Posted by: Sik the hedgehog | March 27, 2006 8:15 PM
Waits for part 2
Posted by: Ben | April 2, 2006 9:56 PM
tell micheal jackson to give me his # i need to talk to him it is vary important
Posted by: latisha | March 9, 2007 6:22 PM
The guy who said that don't sound like michael jackson music on sonic 3 is smoking something. That is Mj music. Anyone with a brain can hear that. Im talking bout the first comment on here. Get ear plugs man.
Posted by: jason | April 23, 2007 8:29 AM
If you all have ever heard Smooth Criminal, Ice Cap Zone is indeed the same, but sped up with no vocals. To me, it's very easy to tell.
Posted by: dani | December 1, 2007 3:20 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGF4kyzN7Ec
almost all songs from sonic 3 levels were mixed with an mj song. .
Posted by: fernus | January 29, 2008 4:33 PM