Music For Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone Has 80s Origin

The great debate over whether or not Michael Jackson worked on the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack still rages to this day, however it seems that more and more evidence is surfacing at an ever-increasing rate, in favour of the king or pop’s involvement!

The keen eyes over at Sonic Retro spotted this gem recently; a track named “Hard Times”, by new wave band The Jetzons, who had a brief stint back in the early 80s. This track has apparently sat on the cutting room floor for years (it never made it to a physical release), until the band’s label published a digital version of their EP, including three rare demos. I think the track speaks for itself:

What might not surprise you is that one member of the Jetzons is none other than Brad Buxer, one of the composers of the Sonic 3 soundtrack, and known associate of Michael Jackson.

While this doesn’t undeniably link Jackson to Sonic 3, it will probably amuse many of you that possibly the most remixed Sonic the Hedgehog song is a remix itself (remix-ception?). Perhaps there are yet more secrets of Sonic 3 left waiting to be uncovered…

The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.

Published by

Adam Tuff

With a decade under his belt, Adam is one of The Sonic Stadium's most seasoned writers, with interests in the music and merchandise of the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. Adam is the co-organiser for the Summer of Sonic convention.

15 Comments

  1. Wow Sonic Retro know the song from Sonic 3 ice cap zone copy the 80s soundtrack The jetzons!

  2. Um… doesn’t this suggest that Michael Jackson DID NOT compose Ice Cap, but rather, Brad Buxer did… and we already knew that he composed music for Sonic 3, his name is on the credits roll after all! So I pose this question to you: How on earth do some of you interpret this as evidence of MJ composing Ice Cap? HOW?!!!!!!!!!! This song was written before Brad Buxer started working for MJ anyway.

    1. Well done! I’ve been thinking this since the story was first published. This is Brad’s song, not Michael’s, so how does this prove anything about him?

      1. It’s been confirmed that Michael Jackson worked on at least 3 songs for Sonic 3, one of them being Carnival Night Zone. This is from someone in roughly the same position as Brad Buxer.

    2. It’s not so much proof of whether or not he wrote this particular song, but more the reinforcement of Buxer’s involvement at the time; Buxer was also heavily involved with MJ around this period, and as the article says, it’s not concrete proof but more inference of the connections that point to a likely involvement.

  3. Holy mother of all that is known…
    thats actually kinda awesome!
    Instead of hearing the Jetzons music in Ice cap zone… I hear Sonic in the Jetzons music…

  4. I’m surprised nobody has asked what (to me) is the obvious question: do any of their other songs sound like anything from Sonic 3?

  5. Didn’t expect an 80’s song from that game. Sonic sure is getting more and more epic everyday ^^,

Comments are closed.