Dragon Ball Z Toonami score: who really wrote the music?

For many people who grew up watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami around 20 years ago, the Faulconer Productions score is a big part of the nostalgia. Fans still love it and associate it with their childhood. But there are many misconceptions about the music and where it came from. Many fans don't realize that Bruce Faulconer did less than 10 percent of the music on that underscore.

The rest was done by other musicians, chiefly Mike Smith and Scott Morgan, with Julius Dobos coming in later. I've been going through a credit sheet that lays out which themes were done by whom, who played guitar, and how they were put together. If you grew up with this score, you can't credit Bruce Faulconer for it.

Why Bruce Faulconer gets too much credit for the Dragon Ball Z score

Before going any further, I want to be clear that I have nothing personal against Bruce Faulconer whatsoever. I think he's a very talented musician and a great piano player. I appreciate what he's done for the music community in the Dallas Fort Worth area with his studio. Nothing against the guy personally.

I'm also not saying he's a fraud, because some people say that. My point is that he didn't do this music, point blank. Smith and Morgan are credited on the Faulconer CDs, yet so many fans think Faulconer did all the work, and he didn't. Much of the music from the Frieza, Android and Cell sagas that came out of Faulconer Productions was a combination of Mike Smith and Scott Morgan. I want to give credit where credit is due.

The spreadsheet follows the order of the compilation CDs that were released, not the order of the story arcs. If you own those CDs, you'll know the songs in sequence. If not, expect the themes to jump back and forth between Trunks, Cell, Buu and the rest.

Where Bruce Faulconer did contribute: the intro and the Ginyu saga

Faulconer does have real credits. The Dragon Ball Z intro song was Bruce together with a guitarist. He also did the Ginyu transformation material, and he did "Scenes From Last Week," which is a remix of the Dragon Ball Z theme, along with the Trunks compendium.

Bruce worked much more hand in hand with these guys when they first started on Dragon Ball Z, which would have been the Ginyu and Frieza sagas. That's where he was there. For the majority of it, though, it was Morgan and Smith doing the work. So whenever you go to see Bruce and try to get him to sign your stuff, remember you'd need three other guys to sign it too, because it wasn't only him.

Mike Smith and Scott Morgan wrote Vegeta's theme and most of the Cell saga music

Vegeta's theme, the one everybody loves, was Mike Smith and Scott Morgan, point blank, and Morgan played the guitar on it. Scott has since made an updated version of the song. The three musicians also have their own group, SSJ, made up of Mike Smith, Scott Morgan and Julius Dobos, and they play at conventions from time to time.

The list of their work goes on. The Cell Games song, the hyperbolic time chamber theme (that slow, brooding piece was Mike Smith) and Pikkon's theme, another fan favorite, which was Scott Morgan. Goku and Piccolo themes, angry Piccolo, Piccolo versus 17, some of the mid Cell saga material, Dead Zone, and Frieza versus Spirit Bomb were all done by Mike Smith and Scott Morgan. I would say the majority of the catalog was done by them.

Perfect Cell, Gohan and Cell's choir themes

The Perfect Cell theme that kept changing, the one people remember, was also a Smith creation, and I think Morgan did help with a few of the different versions. The Gohan anger themes were Mike Smith too. Bruce Faulconer did help a little on those, and he was involved for sure, but Mike Smith did so much music that it was ridiculous.

Cell's theme with the choir, the many remixes of Cell's theme, and Gohan versus Cell were all Mike Smith and Scott Morgan. Scott Morgan and Mike Smith come up again and again on the sheet.

Julius Dobos did much more of the Buu saga music

Julius came in to do much more of the Buu saga material. That includes the Super Saiyan 3 Goku theme. He's otherwise known as Forgotten Future, which is his stage name when he does performances. He's the guy who did the Buu arc, and the sheet shows more work from Mike Smith and Julius Dobos through that stretch.

This is an incomplete list. There are more themes, including unreleased ones, that don't have a catalog yet. But the music for the Faulconer Productions score was mostly done by Mike Smith and Scott Morgan, with Julius coming in for the Buu saga. These credits come directly from the creators, so it's unarguable. Everybody seems to think it was only Bruce, and it wasn't.

The Dragon Ball Z composers made less than $13 an hour

What's crazy about this music is that it was made on a very light budget. Funimation didn't pay them that much. These guys made less than $13 an hour working on the biggest cartoon of the 90s, one of the most viewed shows of the 90s and the early 2000s, with huge ratings for Dragon Ball Z and Toonami. That's mind blowing to me.

They're doing better now, but you should still support them. And that's not Bruce's fault, because Bruce himself didn't get paid that well either. I know some inside information there, but it's true. This was 20 years ago, so things have obviously changed since then.

Why anime no longer gets replacement scores like this

One of the things that changed is that Funimation doesn't really hire musicians to do music anymore. It uses the Japanese music. So you're not going to get replacement scores for anime anymore. One Piece, Dragon Ball Super, whatever comes out will have its Japanese music and that's it. You'll get some English songs here and there, but nobody is going to be hired to write a whole new score. It's not going to happen.

SSJ, meaning Mike Smith, Scott Morgan and Julius Dobos, are the people who really made this music.