...where were you and what did you think about the song, or video?

Stop the press, who is that?

Not only am I a life long Prince fan but also a life long Batman fan,so when it was announced that Prince was doing the Batman movie soundtrack,needless to say I was pumped!When MTV premiered the video, my mom's and my jaw dropped and we looked at each other because we swore he was yelling "GET THE FUCK UP!!!" over and over .

The song is creative,explosive and a brilliant way of promoting the movie and the album. While not a favorite song,it's one of my favorite videos.I love the Vicki Vale mix!

Same here...I saw its world premiered on MTV.
I remember I was captivated by the make-up.
I also loved the idea that it was like Prince as a mad scientist let loose in a (musical) lab.
I also loved the GUITAR!!!!!

not sure first time, last time bout 2 wks ago on local vid show. put me on a prince bender for rest of the day- family not real happy!
now, where is my copy of batman, feel like watching jack as the joker once again. did get a kick out of hearing prince songs in this movie.
always liked the song, great vid, but prefer partyman to listen to.

I was only 7 years old then... The "Batman" movie was the best thing that had happenned to me in my life at that stage!!

My Dad bought me the Prince soundtrack thinking it was the Danny Elfman score. When we realised it was the Prince album he let me listen to it once and then took it back and returned it (back in the days when you could return CDs ).

I just remember thinking that it was kind of weird, and to be honest, at the time I much prefered the Danny Elfman score

I think I was a bit disappointed at first. I expected more of a traditional "song"

well, now I think it's a brilliant creation, if not my favorite song. It's kind of a precursor to rave music, and it breaks down the structure of a song into something new.

The video was pretty bad.
[Edited 1/22/07 16:10pm]

I hated it. It was like a medly of a bunch of throw-away songs. The only part I liked was the Vicki Vale part. He should have just made the whole song like that. I liked the video though. I think I was 13 or 14 years old.

saw its world premiere on MTV
it was pretty hot, to say the least
i especially loved how much work went into the video and song
the vicki vale breakdown and the guitar solo!!!

alwayslate said:

we just wrote almost completely opposite things

so many sides of prince, so many different opinions

I thought, "This video sure is dark! Why doesn't this song make any sense?"

NDRU said:

As it was with most of Prince's singles, my older sister heard the song first and had to describe it to me. She told me that she likes it, but that I was gonna hate it.

So I first heard it on the radio and was like Prince? I loved it immediately. Musically, it was so unlike anything on the radio, just really out there for its time. Then I saw the video like a week or so later and was totally trippin off of his outfit!

Can't remember exactly, but I'm sure it took me a few listens to get into this song - it was just so god-damn weird, not only for the time but also for Prince! And I was kind of expecting a modern take on the Batman theme. The video is fantastic but also completely nuts - I'm sure I heard they wouldn't let him use any footage from the movie, so that's why he had to come up with a new concept - I love the bizarre mix of dozens of Batmans inspired by the new costume look and the Jokers clearly inspired by the classic 70s TV series. Great choreography to show the brooding Batman and the mad-as-a-hatter joker. Add dozens of Vicki Vales "All this and brains too", the Gemini figure of half-batman and half-joker plus Prince again as some sort of Frankenstein mad professor making funky music, and an electric chair - I'm sure people didn't have a clue what was going on! Although Prince clearly understood the underlying concept of much of Batman which is about having 2 sides that are incompatible, so it all makes sense in a sort of dream-like way. I really loved that Gemini look, I wish Prince had toured in that character dressed like that, a sort of Spiders From Mars type tour, that would have been cool!

Saw it on BET.Funky song,Awesome video!!

I had just gotten my iron lung put in.
Then I began hearing this funky music coming out of it.
The doctors tol' me that they heard I was a huge Prince fan, so they had it installed.

Now whenever I have truoble catching my breath, I keep hearing "Get the funk up!" & "Keep bustin'."



I have to say, though,
it's kinda lost it's initial charm by now.

During that time I worked with this young guy who was a Batman fanatic. We bonded during this time because he was excited about the movie and I was excited about the soundtrack. He taped Batdance over and over again on one whole side of a cassette tape and gave it to me! (actually it was a slightly different version than the album version) I have to see if I still have that tape. Anyway I LOVED the song and I didn't have to rewind it to listen to over and over again!

It was on a "smash or trash" segment on the radio. Because it was so different sounding, the people who called in trashed it. That same radio station went on to play the song about 5 million times.

I was a little skeptical about its hit potential but it really grew on me. Great guitar work and clever sampling. P as the mad scientist.

Loved it. The part where it switches from the rock Batman to the funk Vicki Vale blows me away. It sounds like music played sideways.

It's great, Prince is a GENIUS!

i remember thinking the costumed dancers were silly, but that prince's appearance in the video was all kinds of HOTT. i wasn't quite able to digest the song on my first listen, though i knew there were fragments of it i really liked. i wasn't ready for him to be pushing a franchise that wasn't his own, but aside from that, i was pretty well blown away.

I was on my way to pick up a friend and I had read all these articles that Prince needed a hit in the worst way or he was,basically,through.Seems so silly now,in retrospect.Well,I hear something strange on the radio in Atlanta and I know it's my boy because no one else can make sounds like that! I really was kinda' dazed for a few after hearing it.I wasn't sure this was what he needed to put him back on top.I did like it,though.I thought ,"This will never catch on!".Thankfully,I was wrong.People accepted more differences on the radiuo back then.Now,it's all the same Usher song just slightly remixed.

Now that I think about it, this song, along with "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "When Doves Cry", are theonlylead singles from Prince that I liked right away.

Hey-We Got the Power!
Oh-We Got the Soul!

I was 14, with my family coming home from a relative's high school graduation when I asked my mom if I could turn the dial to my favorite station (KZZP-FM in Phoenix AZ!) and they premiered it about 2 minutes later...I almost made my mom run the car off the road I got so excited! I was almost grounded had my mom not dug the song herself!

Aahh..memories!

peace

I was a huge Batman fan when the video came out, so the whole thing kinda threw me off. Why is this perverted little man looking up the skirts of a million Vicki Vales? Does this song ever end?

So, yeah, I guess you could say I was a little perplexed by the whole thing as a kid.

It was unlike any other movie song before or after. It was like a mini version of the movie itself.

skywalker said:

This is the genius of the album/Batdance. The music isn't my favorite of his, but he understood the deeper concept.

Batman & the Joker were two sides of the same coin--and two sides of Prince. He then combined them into the Gemini character. Even dated Vicki Vale!

I really doubt many people other than Prince geeks caught that.

I was in 8th grade, listening to the radio on my headphones while the teacher wasn't lookin'. I knew WGCI had been playing it all day, I finally heard it and it made me want to see the movie because of all the dialog samples. Those were the days!

it was the first time i actually saw the genius that is in prince.it was an excellent record.nothing had sounded like it before and nothing since.he should make more dance records like this .

NDRU said:

TOTALLY!

I think it was brilliant that he was invited to the set of the film so he really took it all in. Though not his best album..it is among his most cohesive of albums....the running theme gelled the songs together.

peace