The U.S. version of Sonic 1 is quite rare, but if you don't mind getting a PAL version (there's no regional lockout between NTSC and PAL) it's one of the most common games. And like I mentioned before, the SMS Sonic games have their own level design so they're worth checking out in their own right (as opposed to just being downgraded ports of the Genesis/MD versions).
In general, definitely check out the SMS PAL library, as about twice as many games came out in PAL territories, with lots of third party support, primarily from PC game developers.