Michael Jackson's music made it into Sonic 3, composers claim

Michael Jackson co-wrote the music in Sonic 3. But did we actually hear any of it?

If you somehow missed one of the longest-running and most beloved gaming rumours of the past decade: some Sonic fans have always believed that the King of Pop composed the soundtrack to Sonic 3.

The rumour had its roots in remarkably Jackson-like themes in the platformer's score and Jackson's pre-existing relationship with Sega. There are all sorts of legends regarding how the collaboration came about, but Sega has never confirmed anything – something conspiracy theorists put down to the child abuse scandal that broke about nine months before the game's release.

Back in 2009 one of the game's composers apparently confirmed that Jackson had worked on music for Sonic 3, but this likely comment was dampened by claims that none of the songs made it into the finished product.

Now a report published on The Huffington Posts's Testkitchen platform claims to have proof: three of the game's six credited composers (Brad Buxer, Doug Grigsby III and Cirocco Jones) said Jackson worked with them and three other musicians, and that the music they produced together is in the final game – together with work produced by other teams. According to the three sources, Jackson asked that his name be held back as he wasn't happy with how Sega compressed the music.

Unfortunately this claim is countered by another source, former Sega executive Roger Hector, who said Jackson's work wasn't featured in the finished game, and was pulled due to the child abuse scandal. That said, Howard Drossin, who was called in to replace Jackson as lead composer, said that there was plenty of music already attached to the project when he came on board, which made it to publication.

The full article is a fascinating read both for those who've been following this story for years and for those stumbling across it for the first time.