This Sonic Soundtrack did NOT need to go THIS hard 

Which Sonic game had your favorite soundtrack??

You didn't have to go so hard with this video, so I'd say we're even.

2:17 “This is a Sonic videogame! It doesn’t need to be this good.” Bro. Sonic games are just fantastic albums with games attached to them.

FINALLY! Someone actually talks about how good this soundtrack is. I don’t care how corny the lyrics are, these songs bop!

This dude is so passionate, I don't even play any instruments, but I love this.

sonic game options menu is one of my favorite genres of music

"This is a Sonic video game. This is so unnecessary. It does not need to be this good!" Actually, Sonic games are kinda known for this specific thing. They have really high quality soundtracks. As far as I know they're universally well liked. I want so badly to see your reaction to the different countries' music in Sonic Unleashed. (Chun-nan, Shamar, Apotos...) Also, the Rouge segments in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle are considered jazz. I wonder how you'd feel about them. Edit: Also, now that I think about it, Sonic Advance. Please do Sonic Advance! As a kid, I used to plug my Gameboy Advance into my old PC speakers and just listen to the music. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Please talk about more of Sonic R's tracks. They're all gems- or I guess emeralds in this case.

Not many games have perfect soundtracks. This one is one of those games with perfect soundtracks. Every single track is amazing with none of them being bad at all, which is one of a kind even for the Sonic Franchise.

Oh... Now you got yourself into a real deep rabbit hole: The Sonic OSTs... These are actually responsible for generating in a lot of 90's kids the interest in instrumental music, because of the richness of those jazzy harmonies. They didn't need to go this hard. But they did and a lot of people is thankful for that.

Fun Fact: The SonicR soundtrack is actually encoded on the CD as an audio CD, so you can stick the disc in a CD player to listen to the soundtrack! As a young kid it seemed amazing to me that I could take the disc out of my computer and keep listening to the soundtrack using my CD player. It was one of my favorite Sonic games growing up, partially because it had 4 player split screen, and largely because of the great soundtrack. I didn't know until recently that it was generally disliked, and I don't really understand why, because we sure enjoyed it!

Holy actual god Finally Someone who’s history and experience growing up with Sonic is identical to my own. Sonic R PC was THE Sonic game I sank my teeth into as a kid. …and now here I am also a musician with affinity to keys. It must be the Sonic R effect. Praise be to Richard Jacques and TJ Davis all the way. It was “Work It Out” for me. Reactive Factory.

Sonic R (in my personal opinion) has the greatest, most consistent and masterful OST in the entire franchise. Everything we get in every form sound-wise is absolute perfection. The breakdown in “Back In Time” is so genuinely emotional and just goddamn beautiful. I could never thank TJ and Richard enough for the gifts they have given to my ears and countless others.

"it's a sonic game! the music doesn't need to be this good" amusingly, one of my recommended videos was the 30th anniversary Sonic Symphony, which is just 2 hours of musical bliss

“When I was a kid, video games weren’t really part of my life.” - *Ah, so that’s why he’s so good at piano*

Yo dunno why it took me so long to see this but an incredible analysis of an incredible sound track!! Speaking specifically about Can You Feel the Sunshine: Since the harmony was already so killing in it, it was an easy adaptation to create our up tempo big band/broadway version based on it. I always say a great tune can be arranged in ANY style and still hold up as long as the bones of the tune (it's melody and harmony) are well written, and this song is truly proof of that!

I love that as a self taught guitarist I understand NOTHING of what you're saying but still feel it, and then I'm just vibing waaaaaaay too hard lol

Richard Jacques (pronounced Jakes) is an old Uni buddy of mine and started with SEGA straight after graduation. His latest award winning game is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy - a six hour score mostly recorded at Abbey Road. The original Sonic chords are descending 7ths (Fmaj7 Emin7 Dmin7 Cmaj7) so Rich’s version is almost a retrograde version. Great video analysis!

One thing I love about the soundtrack is that the length of these songs are a good 4-5 times the length of what it actually takes to finish a race in this game. Like, unless you just sit around in time trials or listen to the OST separate, there's massive chunks of these songs most people who played the game normally likely never heard before.

_It's what they say:_ *"The game may be bad, but the music does not miss."*

Whoever edited this video.... Masterful Work. I laughed at the zoom in on Charles' stray hairs sticking out on the back of his head. Like, did we really need to have our attention drawn to that??? LOL Good stuff.

I feel exactly how you do, as a kid you didn't quite understand why the songs were so satisfying beyond just liking them. Even as an adult I didn't quite get it until watching this video because I'm a music scrub, but this makes me appreciate the music of Sonic R in such a new light. Absolutely incredible, thank you for the insight.

9:50 THIS is why I love new jack swing music. The jazz chord, the hip hop influenced swing beat, the fast tempo similar to house/dance-pop, and those soulful vocals ❤❤❤❤

Richard Jacques also did the music for Sonic 3D Blast/Flickies' Island for Saturn and PC. Overall, Sonic R is among my favorites Sonic OST, but Sonic 3D on Genesis has superb music too (I think it's made by Jun Senoue) and the whole Sonic Adventure series 1 and 2 are outstanding, and it goes through different styles.

95% of sonic games have a good soundtrack despite the gameplay being good or bad. I feel like the music team for the sonic games almost always put their heart and soul into the games soundtrack. Also in the category of video games, I recommend checking out the Hades soundtrack, the blend of instruments is fantastic.

5:00 Dear Editor, the way you pulled us out from the action to see the goof, was absolutely hilarious. Thank you.

This soundtrack is one of my favorites of all time. I bought a Saturn and Sonic R back in 2002 and quickly sold the system a year later, but I kept Sonic R and used it in my CD player

I LOVE that you highlighted Number One. That's without a doubt to me the best song out of the entire soundtrack. What an incredible piece of music and I'm so glad you highlighted it.

Sonic music always goes hard, an underrated gem is Sonic Rush, a game composed by Hideki Naganuma. Absolute legend of a Composer.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Legendary soundtrack with unparalleled diversity. Metal, hip-hop, jazz, techno/EDM, punk, etc. All in one game, all iconic parts of the game

1:24 Now we're gonna do a C-Sus AMONG US

2:00 NO PLEASE WHY WHY WHY

Honestly, it DOES need to go this hard, especially the modern ones. The soundtracks are one of the big reasons sonic's managed to survive. The bad games would be far worse if the soundtracks were bad. I'll happily contend that composers like Jun Senoue (with Crush 40) and Richard Jacques are some of the most important components to sonic still existing in modern times.

No kidding, Sonic R's soundtrack is legendary. And it is my favorite by a small margin above Sonic 3 and Knuckles Only disagreement is that "It doesn't have to be this good" heh, it's a Sonic game and evidently it's pretty well accepted that Sonic Games have good soundtracks, generally, so that never surprised me. For the record, I'm one of the few people that defends this game and genuinely loves it, it always has been one of my favorite games and it seriously doesn't deserve even half the hate it gets. Also, potential piano cover of a Sonic R song maybe???

Sonic R really had one of the best sound tracks ever!!!! We can all agree it's just pure fireeeeeeeeeee. Love a lot of the songs.

Charles Cornell: *starts playing "Can you feel the sunshine"* Me: *having flashbacks of Tails Doll when I was a kid*

7:17 - 7:27 NEEDS to be a meme format. Editing different backgrounds behind Charles' jubilant expressions has infinite meme potential.

I feel like Earth, Wind and Fire also used those kinds of chord progressions and transitions a lot. Great analysis and fun to watch, thanks!

I'm so proud of myself to finally own the original soundtrack CD from this game. I just love Sonic R it has a charming feel even if the game is short and the controls are really heavy handled. My favourite musuc from this game is "Back in Time" such a masterpiece. Also one little fact from Jon Burton's official youtube channel. First he wanted the option to mute the singing and only hear the instrumental but after he heard and said this is really really good, he totally refused this idea immediately!

1:42 1:56 3:20 3:32 4:04 4:31 7:00 7:34 7:53 8:57 9:43 10:26 11:00 11:08 11:22 11:56 12:16 Epic Piano Man Moments 😎

This is one of your best videos so far in my opinion: - Just the right length - Great music - Phenomenal editing

Charles just revealed such new meaning to the song “Can You Feel The Sunshine.” The lyrics now match the chords in a way that feels like it was always intended for them to be working hand in hand like this. I knew I had valid reasoning for playing song this at my restaurant job.

Sonic doesn’t have one bad tracks , and sonic R always remind me of my grandma who passed thank you for this man truly .

"Living in the city" is my favorite song form this game, so many hours playing this game, good memories, good video :D

3:04 I know he always says he's not a singer but I love his voice. His timbre is so pleasant and smooth

The Build-Up at the end of the verse then the DROP to the chorus is one of the best things I've ever heard. It's good to know that I have a professional musician that likes it just as much.

I have the PC version. The music and early rendering was such a memorable experience. When I used to take the city bus to work, this was some of the music I listened to.

The G Minor/Major key change just works so well. It's like going from blissful, to deep intensity, then right back to bliss. In any song, it's magical. It's a similar contrast with C Minor/Major and D Minor/Major.

Sonic R was also a soundtrack I spent my entire youth growing up with, and still have to jam out to as a 32 year old adult. I'm so glad it was something special through your youth too.

I only watch these videos for the part where he's so incredibly tickled that he lets out a CACKLE of joy. This music makes me nostalgic for late 90s-early 2000s anime. ❤️

As someone who's never heard these songs before, I could feel the nostalgia through your happiness alone.

Jacques had epic moments across pretty much all his work. Clearly a jazzer.

I love the sheer child-like wonder, seeing someone so passionate about something is so energizing👌🏻

"This is a sonic videogame, this didn't need to be this good!" I beg to differ here, sonic games are known to have extremely good soundtracks, one of the most iconic in the 16bit era

I gotta be honest I don’t understand most of your music talk but I do deeply enjoy listening to you be so excited about this banger music

“It didn’t need to be THIS good, but they made it this good” defines basically every Sonic soundtrack. They’re all incredibly composed.

Speaking of Sega published games (yeah I’m reaching), you HAVE to take a look at Persona 5’s jazzy funk soundtrack, please. The Royal soundtrack also has some great pieces like “Our Light” or “No more What Ifs”

Seeing charles get hyped about the same videogame soundtracks I lose my shit to is just so cool. My favourite sonic soundtrack (and my favourite videogame soundtrack) is Sonic Mania's one. Tee Lopes made an OUTSTANDING job for that one. From a producer, composer and arranger standpoint, I don't think there's a Sonic soundtrack as mindblowing as Mania's one. You should definitely check it out!

I actually think supersonic racing is one of my favorite songs in the Sonic franchise. I've always loved it

Nice, this is some of the most SEGA sounding music I've heard. I never played the game, but I know Sonic R has quite the following for "Can you Feel the Sunshine" alone! I haven't felt this moved by such an early example of a racing ending credits song since Double Dash.

The edits, camera, and setting changes were spot on in this vid!!!

"This is a Sonic video game...it does not need to be this good!" While the quality of Sonic games is variable through the years, good music is a non-negotiable MUST of the series

I've always loved the soundtrack to Sonic R. Every song is awesome. I don't care if it sounds dated now, it's still incredible to me. Some elements of the soundtrack remind me a little bit of Sonic CD (end credits is the best example). Love it!

Years ago I had this soundtrack on an old MP3 player and the Ipod we had connected to the speaker system at work broke. My Supervisor "borrowed mine" and when Can You Feel the Sunshine came on, everyone was like: What song is this? This is awesome. Their jaw hit the floor when I said it was from a video game. They were like: They have songs in video games now? And they're this good? Good times.

It's refreshing to hear that some composers come up with beautifully crafted music where it apparently doesn't matter that much. At the very least people (= non musicians) get exposed to quality music, which is a very important step to more quality music being made - as opposed to the same old diatonic four chord vamp.

Oh boy, you've just gotten yourself into something... Almost every Sonic game, even the worst ones, have phenomenal soundtracks which are, together with their composers, celebrated by fans. There's also multiple "giants" in the Sonic music scene. Masato Nakamura, from the the Jpop band Dreams come true, responsible for many iconic tracks from the classic games, Jun Senoe with his band Crush40, who brought hard rock music to Sonic and often brought in guest singers, before their rise and currently Tomaya Othani, who composed various tracks, ranging from rap to electronic music and even bossa nova! There's of course many more notable composers, also Richard Jaques had other great Sonic soundtracks too. Sonic soundtracks are definitely a thing, very much worth checking out and having a great time with!

we need more people like charles to praise and explain how amazing the soundtrack of sonic games are. nearly every sonic game ever made has a soundtrack that you cannot miss out on.

Dude, it HAS to go this hard. Making Sonic games without music that is at least above average is a cardinal sin in gaming. It's like an extra commandment: Thou shalt not make Sonic Games with bad music. Even _Sonic 06_ has good music, that's how necessary it is.

I swear a simple video game with amazing soundtrack like Sonic and Undertale is all I need

One thing I LOVE about this soundtrack is every lyric must rhyme to the point where it the sentences don't even make sense anymore. 😂

The composer's name is actually Richard Jacques, and apparently pronounced "Jakes". I spoke to him once after a Video Games Live concert. Nice guy!

Those chromatic “sus” chords are used in a few SEGA games. Daytona USA was full of them - ROLLING START!

Check out the Rouge the Bat music in Sonic Adventure 2. Or "My Sweet Passion". The writing, arrangement, players, production, & mixes on those are remarkable.

If you like Richard Jacques and TJ Davis, they reunited for Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast for a few tracks. That's a wild game where they have a bunch of fake radio stations each themed around their own specialized genre of music.

The last song is SO BEAUTIFUL, thanks for talking with so much love about these songs that I love, all songs are bangers arent they?

That sudden cut to the other view just watching Charles groove out had me rolling XD

Richard Jacque's soundtrack to the Saturn port of Sonic 3D Blast is tragically underrated.

looks like you felt the sunshine and it brightened up your day

Sonic games can be great, mixed or can be bad, but you will know the music will always slap hard

9:31 In Sonic games even option menu themes don't disappoint. Wait until you hear Sonic Adventure's option music

7:16 The face of a man who can feel the sunshine

MAN i actually still have the credits theme on my spotify playlist. i loved this game so much as a kid and the music is a solid 80% of that love

That Game alone was so much to play when i was a Kid. I loved that Soundtrack From Body to Soul. Just amazing ✨

I always loved this soundtrack both un-ironically and ironically 😆

Sonic games as a whole almost always have fantastic soundtracks, even the “bad games” (06, the storybook games, forces, etc) one of the best parts of playing a Sonic game is the soundtrack. Unleashed’s different regional and day/night songs vary a lot, but still remain consistent across the world of unleashed. Mania fantastically shows the energy of each different zone and gives each area new life. Colors’ spacey tracks are awesome, and any time I hear tropical resort I can’t help but have a good time. Forces’ music is a fair bit different (the focus on the more electric/synth style) a lot of people dislike it, but in the context of the story, I think it works well. Team Sonic racing and generations do fantastic jobs at remixing old tracks and making them sound new. Even 06 has brilliant music over some, not so brilliant gameplay (Silver’s theme is one of my favourite tracks ever). And the vocal themes always go way too hard lol, Endless possibilities, Reach for the stars, can you feel the sunshine, live and learn, and more, all these and more are ingrained in my mind even if I haven’t played the game it comes from. Even if frontiers doesn’t live up to the hype, if is the same sort of botw/open world kinda thing, I hope they ditch the “atmospheric piano hits” and simple atmospheric sounds with only combat music (as much as I love them, I want music lol and that’s what Sonic is known for) (doesn’t have to play all the time, just more music then a few piano notes every once in a while). Here’s to more Sonic ost’s!

when I think about songs that are better than they have the right to be the first one is "Can you feel the sunshine" and the second is Sonic Underground's opening

Don’t care how bad this game is, this is one of my favorites. I’ve logged hundreds of hours in this. I honestly have no idea how the main menu theme works and would love a short breakdown of it.

The original Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 were composed by Masato Nakamura, who was a member of a band called Dreams Come True. I highly recommend you give them both a listen, (though honestly, pretty much every Sonic game has a pretty good soundtrack.)

I love seeing him groove, jive and laugh - so wholesome!

This one of those videos when you actually smile while we listen to sonic´s soundtrack, that´s what music is.

I have once heard it jokingly said that Sega shouldn't bother with games anymore and should just become a music label. Honestly, I kinda agree. Sonic R has an amazing soundtrack that pulls away from normal Sonic soundtracks, but as a whole Sonic games' greatest strength is the music.

Sonic Racing soundtrack is so good. I listen to it often. So glad it's getting recognition it deserves!!

When I first listened to Sonic R, I immediately thought it had been created by the most 90s of groups, maybe Masterboy or No Mercy. There's an incredible amount of work put into this soundtrack for a system that didn't even get to highlight all of its musical details. Speedy piano techno was certainly not what I had originally envisioned playing from my Sega Saturn all those years ago. Yet, it hits the nail on the head for the speedy yet constantly unique groove Sonic games have provided and continue to provide. I'd love to see what you think of more recent work such as Sonic Unleashed or Sonic Mania.

Sonic is a franchise that never fails to deliver bangers of soundtracks. Even when I hate a Sonic game, it's guaranteed that I'll be listening to the OST with gusto.

I was hoping wishfully to one day come across someone who would dissect the sound of “Can you feel the Sunshine” in all the highlight details mentioned as you have with such giddy and enthusiasm. *sniff*….bless you man…

Oh you've made my day. Sonic R was my jam. Literally, I put the CD in my cd player and rocked out to those tunes.

I'd love to hear you talk about the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, it's one of my all time favourites, and it's got some cool stuff on a music theory level

4:20 He feels the sunshine, he feels it !

Petition to make him remake the whole "Can you feel the sunshine?" but with the piano.

Charles, you NEED to look at Sonic Mania. I have yet to come across an OST more nuts and energy filled.