One of the most hotly debated rumors within the Sonic The Hedgehog community is the soundtrack to 1994's Sonic The Hedgehog 3. More specifically, whether the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was involved in its creation. Several accounts from former Sega employees and fan sleuthing point toward his involvement. The question is - is this fact or fiction?
Originally beginning as an apparent conspiracy theory in the early 2000s, some of the earliest mentions of the theory have been credited to one Ben Mallison, who noticed extreme similarities between the game's soundtrack and some of Jackson's discography. Specifically, Mallison argued that Sonic's Carnival Night Zone sounded very similar to Jackson's Jam.
This theory would be debated back and forth for several years. Some would argue that the idea of Jackson secretly producing the soundtrack for a Sonic game sounded ridiculous. Others would argue that it would make sense if Jackson's name was removed from the game's credits following his 1993 molestation charges. The theory had no real evidence until several former Sega employees chimed in on the subject.
Jackson was a fan of Sonic and had a longstanding relationship with Sega, working with the company on a video game adaptation of his movie Moonwalker in 1990. Supposedly, Jackson was given a tour of the Sega Technical Institute in 1993 and was asked to produce music for Sonic 3. The staff credited with the game's soundtrack told the Huffington Post that Jackson did indeed work on the game alongside them.
Brad Buxer, Jackson's musical director, was already working with him on his album Dangerous at the time and claims he was asked by the singer to assist him in his work on Sonic 3. Roger Hector, a former Sega executive, would later claim that the King of Pop had indeed worked on the game's soundtrack, but Sega would later remove his tracks from the game after he became surrounded by controversy. Hector would outright state that during development Sega intended to keep Jackson's involvement a secret from the public, even before his molestation charges.
Doug Grigsby III, a member of the team that produced the soundtrack for Sonic 3, claimed that development continued with Jackson after the accusations against him were made public. He stated that there were never any calls to cease production from Sega and Jackson was eager to complete the project. When the game was finally released in 1994, the entire sound team was credited - except Michael Jackson.
Members of the team claim that Jackson pulled his name from the credits as the compressed sound quality of the Genesis ended up reducing the quality and impact of his music. His songs would remain, but he would not be credited. Hector asserts that after the molestation charges against Jackson, Sega removed all his tracks from the game. Howard Drossin was the composer hired to replace the tracks, and Drossin claims that he didn't replace them at all, merely tweaked them slightly. Originally being told that he would be working with Jackson, Drossin was surprised to find that he would ultimately be tasked with re-working his completed soundtrack.
With all that said, it's entirely possible for both Sega and the sound team's statements to be true. Technically, Sega is correct. Jackson's tracks do not appear in the game as Drossin was hired to re-work them. The sound team are also telling the truth when they say that Jackson's tracks and sounds are all in the game as Drossin admits to have hardly changed them. The evidence seems fairly conclusive that Jackson did indeed have some involvement in Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
SEGA has re-released almost every classic Sonic title multiple times, with the first two games being released for all current-generation consoles - but not Sonic 3. The game hasn't seen a re-release for over a decade - something that will change with the upcoming Sonic Origins collection. Fans believe that the now high-profile discussion surrounding Jackson's involvement is part of the reason why Sonic 3 disappeared for so many years.