It was one of the most persistent speculations surrounding Sonic 3 to date: Now it’s official: Michael Jackson was involved in the soundtrack.
That the late performer Michael Jackson was involved in the Sonic 3 soundtrack has been a persistent rumor for years. Occasionally, Sega employees would throw in hints that the King of Pop was involved in the work on Sonic’s third adventure. If anyone needs to know, it’s Yuji Naka, programmer of the Sonic games and founder of the Sonic Team studio. On Twitter, he confirmed what fans have always suspected: Michael Jackson’s music was officially used in Sonic 3. There he is obviously disappointed that parts of the music no longer correspond to the original.
Why is this topic now suddenly coming up again? A new trailer has been released to accompany the release of Sonic Origins, a collection of the first games in the series, drawing attention to the new music. The exchange is not particularly well received by the fans. It is said that Jackson, who previously worked on Moonwalker with Sega, was a big Sonic fan. How far his participation in the soundtrack of Sonic 3 ultimately was is wildly speculated. After the well-known allegations of molestation by several children, it is said that Sega had already discarded or heavily revised the music that had already been finalized. Jackson never appeared in the game’s credits, and despite its open secret status, Sega has mostly been reluctant to confirm its collaboration with the King of Pop.
Shortly thereafter, Naka posted another tweet in which he expressed that he had been misunderstood by many due to his lack of knowledge of English. He then wished Sonic a happy 31st birthday, but was puzzled that Sega itself released a video featuring a Sonic mascot dancing to Michael Jackson’s hit “Billy Jean.”