World-famous musician Jon Batiste has paid tribute to Sonic the Hedgehog on his newest album, Hollywood Africans. Batiste, an American musician known for being the lead performer of his band, Stay Human, the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert happens to love everybody’s favorite blue hedgehog. On top of that, he is the Music Director of The Atlantic and the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York but, y’know, let’s talk about hat whole Sonic thing.
The soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog is iconic, alongside the likes of The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon. So much so, that Batiste’s new album features a song called “Green Hill Zone,” which is the theme from the first level of Sonic the Hedgehog. You can listen to the track on Spotify here.
“Green Hill Zone” appears alongside the likes of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” and Chopin’s “Nocturne in D Minor,” meaning that it’s a cover of a video game theme that’s included on an album of classical and jazz covers. The best part is that it fits the album like a glove, as the instrumentation of Batiste’s version is phenomenal.
This isn’t the first time that Batiste has covered video game themes, though. YouTube user Nick Blomgren posted a video back in January of Batiste covering Final Fantasy‘s “Bombing Mission” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He has also performed the theme from The Legend of Zelda on the show, during which he even wore Link’s iconic green hat and shouted at the camera at the end in a way that was clearly representative of the Hero of Hyrule’s grunts. Yah!
Hopefully this paves the way for more video game covers in future. Who wouldn’t want to hear Jon Batiste covering themes from the likes of Halo, Portal, and Mass Effect?
