Categories xxOLDOfficial News

Vocals Dropped for Sonic CD Port’s Soundtrack

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Author Shadzter
58 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEbehshkzsw&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Sonic Retro forum member RGamer2009 has revealed that SEGA’s digital download Sonic CD port does not feature the vocals in its soundtrack that were present in its original Mega CD release. RGamer2009 recorded the above footage from the GameStop Android tablet version, and at the 40 seconds mark you can see the game’s animated intro with just an instrumental version of Sonic – You Can Do Anything.

Christian Whitehead aka “The Taxman” followed the discovery up with the below message at the Sonic Retro forums suspecting legal rights issues.

I know it’s a bit of a bummer that the vocals had to be left out. It’s definitely not something due to laziness or something silly. I couldn’t tell you the circumstances, but at least from my understanding there are some rights associated with the lyrics themselves.

My guess is that since Casey Rankin is no longer alive, there might be problems negotiating the use of the lyrics outside of Japan. Please, don’t take this as gospel though since I don’t work in legal

Sources: RGamer2009 and The Taxman at Sonic Retro

Thanks to Sean at the SSMB for the heads up!

What are your thoughts on this development? Let us know in the comments.

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58 Comments

  4. Then I wonder why the song was included on the Best Of Sonic, True Blue a year or two ago, since that CD was made available in the U.S. I personally dont care for the song, its the one Sonic song that I cant listen to the entire thing, so im kinda glad its instrumental. But, there are many Sonic songs people cant stand that i like, so im not trolling or saying its terrible or putting down anyones opinions. Very odd tho…

  5. Shadzter, the correct title for the song is “Sonic – You Can Do Anything”. And it’s sad that they couldn’t include the vocals, because now it sounds a bit… empty without them.

  6. Ugh… why didn’t they just use Sonic Boom? It’s in Generations.

    I really really dislike the Japanese soundtrack. Sonic CD was the game I grew up on. I couldn’t convince my parents to get a Sega console, but Sonic CD was on PC.

  10. Darn shame… wait, since they used an instrumental version of You Can Do Anything (Toot Toot Sonic Warrior) does this mean it’s using the Japanese soundtrack without vocals? 🙁 Personally I love both soundtracks… but still, kind of shameful.

  11. Toot sonic lame ass toot, toot sonic lame ass. jesus, you think sega would own the rights to the music used in THIER OWN GAME!?!?!?!?!?

  14. hmm… So that means the ending theme gets an instrumental too… I’m not against this. I always wanted an instrumental of that one

  15. They may not have the right to the U.S. Soundtrack, but I’m sure they should have the rights to Sonic Boom1 It would be odd to hear an instrumental, but I ain’t complaining. As long as I get to play Sonic CD!

  20. Well so far there are mixed feelings about the news, I respect it. What made the game so good was both the gameplay and the soundtrack. My thoughts are take all the time you need and work out the legal issues, SEGA, if not at least give us a DLC update after things have been settled. Stardust Speedway is the best Zone offers the best vocal music in it, please tell me that’s not edited too?

  22. Oh well, just means I’ll have to add the music in myself when i do my HD re-record of CD during editing. Makes me wonder if Cosmic Eternity suffered the same fate.

    Well, better hunt the audio files down.

  23. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

    Oh well, I can live with that. But if it includes the Stages then (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

  28. Fair enough, it’s not like I’ve purchased Sonic CD for the minute long song.. in fact I’d pass it up (lies!) if Tails wasn’t playable

  30. I know this may be silly to ask but Sonic CD for Mega CD (Japanese Version) also Released in the European Version with Japanese Music in 1993 (with build-in sountrack that load CD Player on different CD player or console incuding importing into MP3 Files throught the PS3) “well, expect for addition song by crush40” (as long it is the Mega CD Version and not the Sega PC Version) :3

  32. That’s great! The vocals were so embarrassing in the Japanese music, awful Engrish. Would be cool if they dropped them from the level themes too, they’re very distracting. Particularly the level complete jingle, which sounds like something from a cartoon teaching kids not to smoke or something.

    2. Get rid of the end of stage jingle?! No they can’t get rid of: “OOO SONIFICATION YEAH! ZABBA DE ZAP ZAP!”
      I can’t live without it… :,(

      1. *laughs* Nice enterpretation of it! XD I always thought it went like this: *gets on a wooden crate*
        *starts breakdancing* “CELEBRATION YEEEAAHH! Saturday Night light!” 😀
        *ends in a finger-waving pose, then climbs off the box*
        :I

  35. Wow! I know they are using the Japanese soundtrack but maybe giving the option to play “sonic boom” w/ lyrics or this w/o them would help?

  36. It has a whole new flavor to it now, at least ^^lll Oh well. . . .
    It is interesting to see the opening without the vocals, but I wonder what “legal reasons” would not allow them to use it. . . 😕 Did “Dreams Come True” or whatever the band was that wrote this song just blatantly say “No! You can’t use the song in the remake of the game it was first featured in!”? Not likely. Maybe Sega just wanted to see if fans liked it better without the vocals as opposed to the song with them. Like the many “leaks” going on that are kind of like quality control. The fans see something they don’t like, Sega does what they can to fix it. I’m not saying it’s true. Just a theory. . . .

  37. Edit:
    Just watched the whole thing through. It sounds like an opening to an old 80s anime like Dragonball Z! XD Weren’t Yuji Naka and a lot of staff members huge DBZ fans? X) It sounds really neat, though 🙂

  38. Really disappointed about this, I absolutely LOVE the JP soundtrack, and now they come out and say NO VOCALS. Hope they don’t screw up the level music as well, it’s not going to be the same!

  40. Wow. But now I want that instrumental. This is interesting, albeit weird because those that have never heard it will not be able to experience the original version with vocals. Still getting this when it releases!

  41. Hoping that the music isn’t in some weird compression changing the soundtracks shouldn’t be that hard at all. APKs are just like JAR files. You can get into them with WinRAR and change everything out, just get rid of the METAINF folder

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  44. Uh, how come everyone is wondering whether the XBLA remake uses the US or JP soundtrack? It’s already been confirmed that it’ll have both, with an option to switch between them.

  45. I learned something very puzzling. On iTunes the Sonic CD sountrack is up for sale for $9.99 and it includes the full vocal songs. So which means SEGA has the rights the songs and can sell them on iTumes and they have the green light to include the songs in the game. Perhaps they finally sorted out the copyright issues over the music and will make Sonic CD complete here in the US with all vocal songs. I don’t know about the Gamestop tablet with the non-vocals, there is still no solid date for the offical release on Xbox or PS3 versions. Let’s hope the vocals are in them.

    1. To be fair though, £3.99 for the game probably doesn’t cover the vocal licensing.

      I’m going to wager that it was decided so that Sega could release the game at such a cheap price. Cheap = more sales after all.

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