Editing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (section)

===Michael Jackson's involvement===
{{See also|Michael Jackson in video games}}
[[File:Michael Jackson, 1988 (46845017052).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|According to the development staff, [[Michael Jackson]] composed portions of the ''Sonic 3'' soundtrack but went uncredited. His involvement was denied by senior Sega employees.]]
According to several sources involved in the development, Sega hired the pop musician [[Michael Jackson]] to compose music for ''Sonic 3'', but he left the project and went uncredited.<ref name="MJSonic3" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=McMahon |first=James |date=2019-05-12 |title=Michael Jackson probably wrote the music for Sonic the Hedgehog – so why is his name nowhere to be seen? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/michael-jackson-sonic-hedgehog-3-music-composed-sega-game-a8908246.html |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=[[The Independent]] |language=en}}</ref> Fans speculated about similarities to Jackson's music, but his involvement was not known until Hector mentioned it in an interview in 2005.<ref name="MJSonic3" />

Jackson was a ''Sonic'' fan<ref name="untoldvol3">{{cite book|last1=Szczepaniak|first1=John|title=The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Volume 3|date=2018|publisher=S.M.G Szczepaniak|isbn=978-0992926083}}</ref>{{rp|292}} and had collaborated with Sega on the 1990 arcade game ''[[Moonwalker (video game)|Moonwalker]]''.<ref name="sega-16.com" /> Jackson's tour director, [[Brad Buxer]], assembled a team and worked on the project for four weeks at [[Record One]] in Los Angeles in 1993.<ref name="MJSonic3" /><ref name="NLifeBuxer">{{cite web |last1=Hagues |first1=Alana |date=9 June 2022 |title=Brad Buxer Reconfirms Michael Jackson's Involvement With Sonic 3's Soundtrack |url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/06/brad-buxer-reconfirms-michael-jacksons-involvement-with-sonic-3s-soundtrack |access-date=27 June 2022 |website=[[Nintendo Life]]}}</ref> They developed fully fledged tracks, with extensive [[Sampling (music)|samples]] of Jackson [[beatboxing]], to be adapted for the Genesis.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> Hector said the work had a recognizable Jackson sound.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> Naka said that the development team visited Jackson's home at [[Neverland Ranch]] during the development''.''<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Stewart |first=Marcus |date=June 23, 2022 |title=Yuji Naka Seemingly Confirms Michael Jackson's Involvement With Sonic 3's Soundtrack |url=https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/06/23/yuji-naka-seemingly-confirms-michael-jacksons-involvement-with-sonic-3s-soundtrack |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623145615/https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/06/23/yuji-naka-seemingly-confirms-michael-jacksons-involvement-with-sonic-3s-soundtrack |url-status=live |archive-date=June 23, 2022 |access-date=2023-07-08 |magazine=[[Game Informer]] |language=en}}</ref> [[Naoto Ohshima]], the co-creator of Sonic, said Jackson recorded an [[a cappella]] demo tape for ''Sonic 3''.<ref name="untoldvol3" />{{rp|301}}<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last=Ashcraft |first=Brian |date=February 22, 2018 |title=More Fuel For The Michael Jackson ''Sonic 3'' Conspiracy Theory |url=https://kotaku.com/more-fodder-for-the-michael-jackson-sonic-3-conspiracy-1823221932 |access-date=March 17, 2018 |work=[[Kotaku]]}}</ref> 

During the development, [[1993 child sexual abuse accusations against Michael Jackson|allegations of child sexual abuse]] against Jackson emerged. Buxer said the team received no instruction to halt work and sent the finished soundtrack to Sega in mid-1993.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> According to Hector and Ohshima, Jackson's involvement was terminated following the allegations.<ref name="MJSonic3" /><ref name="untoldvol3" />{{rp|301}}<ref name=":1" /> However, Buxer and two other members of Jackson's team, Doug Grigsby III and Cirocco Jones, said Jackson went uncredited because he was unhappy with how the Genesis, which was incapable of playing back high-quality audio, replicated his music.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> 

Jackson's music had already been implemented and had to be quickly reworked by [[Howard Drossin]],<ref name="gamestm" /> who had joined the project expecting to work with Jackson.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> Other tracks were composed by Sega sound team members, such as [[Jun Senoue]], who became a regular composer for the series.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Herman |first1=Tamar |title=Jun Senoue on Creating Music for 'Team Sonic Racing' and the Future of Video Gaming Music |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/gaming/8529526/jun-senoue-interview-sonic-the-hedgehog-video-games |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref> According to Buxer, Grigsby and Jones, their music remained in the game.<ref name="MJSonic3" /> Jones credited himself along with Jackson and Buxer for musical cues for "levels 2 & 3" of "''Sonic the Hedgehog''" on his website.<ref name="GameTrailers">{{cite web |date=October 4, 2013 |title=Episode 39: Sonic 3: Michael Jackson |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFgnUa1v8uA |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/EFgnUa1v8uA |archive-date=2021-12-11 |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=[[GameTrailers]] |publisher=}}{{cbignore}}</ref> An anonymous source involved in development also told ''[[GameTrailers]]'' that Jackson's contributions, such as the Carnival Night Zone theme, remained.<ref name="GameTrailers" /> In 2013, it was discovered that the music for IceCap Zone was derived from a previously unreleased 1982 song, "Hard Times", by Buxer's band the [[Jetzons]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/a-michael-jackson-sonic-the-hedgehog-conspiracy-runs-through-arizona-6620734|title=A Michael Jackson-Sonic the Hedgehog Conspiracy Runs Through Arizona|last=Moore|first=Dan|date=December 11, 2013|website=[[Phoenix New Times]]|access-date=June 4, 2016}}</ref> The ''Sonic 3'' credits music became the basis for Jackson's 1996 single "[[Stranger in Moscow]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hagues |first=Alana |date=2022-06-09 |title=Brad Buxer Reconfirms Michael Jackson's Involvement With Sonic 3's Soundtrack |url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/06/brad-buxer-reconfirms-michael-jacksons-involvement-with-sonic-3s-soundtrack |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=[[Nintendo Life]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> 

Senior Sega staff, including Sega of America's president [[Tom Kalinske]], said that any involvement of Jackson was arranged without their knowledge, and that no formal agreements were made.<ref name="sega-16.com">{{cite web | url=http://www.sega-16.com/2009/05/sega-legends-michael-jackson-sonic-3/ | title=Sega Legends: Michael Jackson & Sonic 3 | last=Horowitz | first=Ken | publisher=Sega-16|date=May 19, 2009 |access-date=March 17, 2018}}</ref><ref name="MJSonic3">{{cite news |last1=Van Luling |first1=Todd |date=January 25, 2016 |title=The Michael Jackson Video Game Conspiracy |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |url=http://testkitchen.huffingtonpost.com/michaeljacksonsonic/#2/ |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref> In 2013, Hector said that any similarities to Jackson's music in ''Sonic 3'' were unintentional.<ref name="GameTrailers" /> The journalist Ken Horowitz raised questions about Jackson's alleged involvement, such as how an agreement between Sega and Jackson could have been kept secret from the media, why Sega's marketing never mentioned Jackson's involvement and why Jackson would reuse music originally composed for a video game.<ref name="sega-16.com" /> According to Buxer, Jackson only worked on one of the 41 tracks that his team composed.<ref name="NLifeBuxer" /> ''[[Retro Gamer]]'' reasoned that, if this were true, it was unlikely that any music composed by Jackson himself remained in the game.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thorpe |first=Nick |date=2023 |title=30 years later, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is still a stone-cold classic: 'We wanted to make the third game more epic than Sonic 2' |journal=[[Retro Gamer]]}}</ref> 

Some ''Sonic 3'' tracks were replaced in the 1997 [[Windows]] port ''[[Sonic & Knuckles Collection]],''<ref>{{cite web|title=Sonic & Knuckles Collection|date=June 23, 2011 |url=http://www.gamesradar.com/sonic-knuckles-collection/|publisher=GamesRadar|access-date=January 19, 2015}}</ref> as well as the remaster included in the 2022 compilation ''[[Sonic Origins]]''.<ref name=":3" /> These tracks also appear in a ''Sonic 3'' prototype discovered in 2019, suggesting that they were written before being replaced by Jackson's music.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Purslow |first1=Matt |title=Sonic 3 Prototype With Lost Content Discovered |date=November 19, 2019 |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/11/18/sonic-3-prototype-with-lost-content-discovered |website=[[IGN]] |access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref> In 2019, ''[[VG247]]'' noted that ''Sonic 3'' had been rereleased less frequently since [[Death of Michael Jackson|Jackson's death in 2009]] and speculated that this was due to legal problems with [[Estate of Michael Jackson|his estate]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alex |first1=Donaldson |date=March 20, 2019 |title=I believe in Google's Stadia vision of the future, but the gaming preservationist in me is worried |url=https://www.vg247.com/2019/03/20/stadia-streaming-vision-future-video-game-preservation/ |access-date=April 10, 2019 |website=[[VG247]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Donaldson |first1=Alex |date=April 10, 2019 |title=Sonic 3 A.I.R. is the quality remaster that Sega probably won't release itself |url=https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/10/sonic-3-air-fan-remaster-sega/ |access-date=April 10, 2019 |website=[[VC247]]}}</ref>