If you were a child of the Dreamcast and/or Gamecube eras, it’s likely that you played Sonic Adventure 2 – or that you sat on a friend’s couch as they played Sonic Adventure 2, or that you tried Sonic Adventure 2 on a GameStop demo kiosk and coveted Sonic’s officially branded “Soap” shoes that allowed him to grind rails with nothing but his (thankfully) covered feet. The game opened and closed with a song that perfectly understood the assignment, that channeled the sounds of 2001 alt metal into an ideal distillation of Sonic’s whole vibe. Now, more than two decades later, it's going to be in the third Sonic movie.
“Live and Learn” by Crush 40 – a band made up of Sonic sound director Jun Senoue and American vocalist Johnny Gioeli – has long served as an endearingly cheesy artifact of a simpler time, but now it’s back. After years of fervent YouTube comment requests and Reddit theories that the song’s return would coincide with Shadow the Hedgehog’s big-screen debut, a few suspiciously “Live and Learn”-like notes played during a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 teaser trailer released late last week.
Gioeli confirmed to Aftermath that “Live and Learn” will be in the movie, though beyond that, it’s out of Crush 40’s hands.
“I have indeed signed a deal with Paramount for song placement,” Gioeli said. “How they will use it is strictly up to them. … Paramount now has the legal right to use ‘Live and Learn’ in any manner they feel necessary.”
The version of the song hinted at in the trailer is certainly recognizable, but where the original employed guitar harmonies, incredible nonsense lyrics like “Can you feel time slitherin’ down your spine,” and vocals so impassioned that it was hard to believe they were about a blue hedgehog, this one seems to be headed in a more Avengers theme-esque orchestral direction.
Gioeli hopes Paramount’s take can still capture what made the original special.
“Let’s hope the movie does the song justice!” he said.
In the meantime, he's just happy that fans are happy.
“This milestone doesn’t at all feel like it’s for me,” he said. “It’s for the fans who have supported and endured the wait!”
