...Have any of you heard Prince’s Batman soundtrack?????? HAVE YOU???????

I don’t think many of you have, and if you have but don’t play it often, then you haven’t REALLY heard it. So Imma educate y’all about this masterpiece.

First off, if you didn’t know already, This was the soundtrack for Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) led by Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton. At the time it was one of the largest comic book-based films and Burton’s largest production (US$48 Million budget).

It’s important to note that from 1970 to 1980 multiple studios turned down producing this film, and Burton wasn’t greenlit to begin producing it until 1988. For a time, with the most popular ‘Batman’ representation being the Adam West-led TV series...

No one thought a serious Batman interpretation could be successful. This was especially the fears of many when Keaton, more known as a comedic performer, was cast as the title character. The film’s commercial success led to the continued adaptation of ‘serious’ Batman stories...

Including 3 sequels and “Batman: The Animated Series”. However you may feel about the film, it paved the way for the modern-day dramatic representations of the Dark Knight. All this to say, Prince’s soundtrack played a significant role in modern Batman’s cultural relevance.

For example, in 2016 film critic Matt Zoller Seitz ( @NYMag , @vulture , @ebertvoices) remarked that Prince’s vision for Batman was far more psychologically perceptive than the film’s representation of the character... https://twitter.com/mattzollerseitz/status/784800642518945796?s=21

And gave the character a unique image essentially unmatched by other adaptations. @mattzollerseitz https://twitter.com/mattzollerseitz/status/784807667965591552?s=21

Which makes it just as amazing of a product considering how Prince came to make this album. When production started in 1988, fans had already negatively reacted to Burton’s and Keaton’s involvement, thus the film was under heavy creative control by Warner Bros.

Several rewrites and plot changes were made; The 1988 Screenwriter’s Guild strike prevented majority writer Sam Hamm to have any input on most of the changes. In a 1997 book Burton is said to have reflected on creating Batman as “Torture” and “The worst period of my life!"

So, Burton had chose a then lesser-known Danny Elfman for scoring the film. It was the producers who originally envisioned adding original songs alongside it, and they planned for Prince to only make songs for the Joker’s parts, and Michael Jackson to contribute love songs.

At this time, Prince had already produced 3 successful soundtracks, but not as massive as his first, Purple Rain. So at some point, Warner Bros. decided to only include Prince songs as he was a W.B. Records artist and Michael was not.

Burton planned to use two already-released Prince songs (“1999” and “Baby I’m a Star”), and when he asked the artist to use the songs or have him re-record them, Prince came to the film’s set in England and watched a rough cut of the film.

Prince loved the story and decided he could produce original songs that would fit better with the film. The producers and Warner Bros. decided to allow him to write multiple songs, as long as he gave complete copyright control of the music to Warner Bros. under the Batman brand.

burton initially did not want this for fear that the film was already becoming too “commercialized” against his vision, but Warner Bros. both aimed to maximize their net gain from the film and get an opportunity to again earn “Purple Rain”-like money from their top artist.

So after the Lovesexy Tour concluded in February 1989, Prince returned to his two-year old, newly constructed Paisley Park Studios complex and before the end of the month he had already turned in 11 songs for consideration. Burton turned down about 3 of them.

These songs all had lives of their own: “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic” was released on its own album in 1999, “200 Balloons” became a B-side track, “Batman Theme” was recorded by Miles Davis. Similar to the Black Album, Prince dropped “Dance with the Devil” for being too dark.

Prince had the soundtrack finalized by March, by which time Warner Bros. decided to give two full-length soundtrack, Elfman’s score and Prince’s original songs. The film made many changes between his visit and editing, so Prince’s music did not completely gel with the plot.

Prince managed to simultaneously recreate the sound of his past work (something he rarely ever did) and imagine each song and its lyrics through the point of view of each main character, proving how much he engulfed himself in this project and identified with the characters...

Which led him to create his own version of “Two-Face”: the half-Prince, half-Joker “Gemini”. Each lyric was attributed to either Gemini or other major characters, with only two to himself ("Who do you trust if you can't trust God? Who can you trust - who can ya? Nobody.")

Batman was Prince’s reinvention and rare return to commercialization: He straightened his hair (or kept it half-curly green when in “Gemini” character), donned black or purple often and heavy promotion: 5 singles, remixes, 2 EP, SNL appearances, videos dancing alongside monkeys-

All despite not earning directly from the sales as most of that money sent directly back to Warner Bros. - because Prince was that into making Batman a masterpiece, and it deserves recognition as one.

The album was #1 across the entire country for 6 weeks, and lead single “Batdance” reached the top the charts as well. The soundtrack recharted and topped at #61 in 2016, evidence that fans consider it among the list of great Prince projects, commercially and musically.

It’s fitting that Batman was the last Prince release in the 80s, as it summarizes his artistry throughout that decade: commercially massive, devoted to perfection, creatively unmatched. Every song,even non-singles, had a life of its own and would have been hits if made by others.

I intended to go through each song and describe its greatness, but I think that would be overkill and just leave you with one of my favorite performances, the rendition of “Electric Chair” on the 15th Anniversary show of “Saturday Night Live”.

In conclusion, the next time you watch any version of Batman, thank Prince for his part. If you want to listen to a complete, awesome film soundtrack, listen to “Batman”. Thank you if for some reason you completed this thread, enjoy your holidays, peace and #love4oneanother!