Cloreen said:

Guitarhero said:

I thought I read that Jack Nicholson, in particular, was a Prince fan and some early assemblies of scenes in the film were cut to existing Prince tracks - and then someone (presumably at WB) thought, why don't we just ask Prince to write some new songs. Prince hadn't been planning on releasing an album that year, but then got excited about the project and wrote the songs very quickly (or dusted off existing tracks like "Anna Waiting") - and then was upset that Tim Burton didn't use his songs more. Some of that is in the Hahn book.
Which sort of makes sense, as the film was already being scored by a brilliant composer (Danny Elfman) who Burton works with all the time and had lobbied hard for.
But Prince's album still did well, didn't it? It was a commercial hit after Lovesexy, I thought?

thedance said:

airth said:

It was well promoted in the UK. We got four singles: Batdance, Partyman, The Arms of Orion and The Future over the space of a year. Scandalous was available as an import. The film had come and gone, so I'm not sure what else Warners could have done. Prince must have been itching to move onto Graffiti Bridge, with Thieves in the Temple coming out just two months after The Future.

Yes...


also, lots of great Batman b-sides as well

1989 was an amzing year in Prince world....

A bit dissapointing at first that When 2R In Love was b-side for Scandalous!, but the Suite had SEX as an extra track. Not his best, but far better than Lois Lane's version.. he just had to do that song right I guess.

Jack Nicholson I thought was the one who recommended Prince for Batman as they were using 1999 and Baby Im a Star as placements until the actual songs were submitted. What I remember is Prince gave Tim Burton Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and 200 Balloons and Burton felt they weren't quite right, so Prince came back with Partyman and Trust...and a whole albums worth of material. They used some of it in the movie and others were "inspired" by the characters. They also released the actual Danny Elfman score as its own album.

The album did well with Batdance, and being tied to the movie...but it sorta fizzled after that. However Purple Party Mix from the Partyman 12" got a ton of radio play in Chicago as did Scandealous.

Everyone has it right though...anything tied to the movie was successful. It was everywhere then.

NorthC said:

delirious26 said:

He should have put Dance With The devil on the soundtrack.... it was darker and fit the movie fairly well. I agree that most of the songs did not fit the tone of the movie. It's also one of my favorite albums ever regardless. I love it anyway, but I never really connected Batman with Prince's Batman soundtrack...

The album has aged better than the movie.

TheEnglishGent said:

SoulAlive said:

That's where we disagree.I think Prince's songs were a perfect for for the movie,but the filmmakers were too dumb to find a way to use his songs effectively.It's not as if Prince just submitted a normal "Prince album" to them.He submitted songs that were specially written for the movie ("Vicki Waiting",for example)...songs that were written from the point of view of the characters in the film.

Bad example, Vicki Waiting was originally called Anna Waiting and was an existing song which was tweaked to fit the Batman movie.

yeah,but you know what I mean He went out of his way to make these songs "fit" the movie and the characters.

paulludvig said:

The album has aged better than the movie.

what makes you say that? I still think that one is THE Batman movie, don't get it when people try to compare the later ones to it. I don't really even think they come close. heath ledger did a pretty darn good job but Nicholson set the bar for the joker. He also spawned a series of imitators, bad guys who are lovable, funny as hell and unbalanced. Even top actors like Deniro were copping from the lunacy in Cape Fear.

Cloreen said:

.

.

2. Huge laughter and disappointment when we heard some of those songs in the movie. Everyone was like what the hell are these songs doing in this film? Like putting Chet Atkins songs in a movie about Roman gladiators. Yes, those Prince songs in BATMAN became the punch lines to many comedians' acts. "....that fits as well as those Prince songs in BATMAN!" was a popular line.

Not true at all! you just made this stuff up!

Why are you lying and exaggerating? Back in 1989 when the movie came out,I don't recall there being a big ruckus about the songs being out of place in the movie.And I never heard any comedians criticizing those songs.If you don't like the album,fine....but let's not make up shit,OK?

Cloreen said:

Huge laughter and disappointment when we heard some of those songs in the movie. Everyone was like what the hell are these songs doing in this film? Like putting Chet Atkins songs in a movie about Roman gladiators. Yes, those Prince songs in BATMAN became the punch lines to many comedians' acts. "....that fits as well as those Prince songs in BATMAN!" was a popular line.

.

But, the songs do fit the film.

Tim Burton had originally used "1999" and "Baby, I'm A Star" while filming the the scenes with the Joker destroying the art pieces in the museum and throwing money to the crowd during the carneval scene. "Partyman" and "Trust" were just what those songs were replaced with in the final film. Obviously, Burton had wanted a Prince vibe for the music used during those scenes, even if he had originally thought he'd ask Danny Elfman to do the songs.

Likewise, "Scandalous" was used for the making out scene on the couch, just as an instrumental version recreated by Danny Elfman. Did anyone complain that it didn't "fit the film"?

suomynona said:

IstenSzek said:

The only one that uses "huge" more often is Tronald Dump.

Does the Org have a "Mute" function? Asking 4 a friend...

Batdance was pretty creative as was the video, i also reiterate, both partyman and batdance were possibly his best videos.

Cloreen said:

.

What I remember is this:

.

1. Huge excitement and anticipation when the news broke that Prince would be writing songs for this new and exciting Batman film.

.

2. Huge laughter and disappointment when we heard some of those songs in the movie. Everyone was like what the hell are these songs doing in this film? Like putting Chet Atkins songs in a movie about Roman gladiators. Yes, those Prince songs in BATMAN became the punch lines to many comedians' acts. "....that fits as well as those Prince songs in BATMAN!" was a popular line.

.

Bottom line is this: when the film actually came out and played, everyone loved it. Big hit. But the Prince songs were deemed so incompatible that the album seemed to just disappear.

1) True

2) Nonsense. Jack Nicholsons Joker wrecking the museum to the tune of Partyman is a piece of cinematic history.

3) "Hubba, hubba, hubba! Money, money, money! Who do you trust? Me? I'm giving away free money..." - For 20 odd years this was THE cinematic Joker, dancing to the tune of "Trust" on a carnival float while murdering people who thought he was giving them free money.

There was no chance in hell they were going to use ALL the songs from the album. They weren't making "Batman on ice".

Your theory about how the songs don't fit the movie isn't true either. There is a well known story about "1999" and "Baby I'm a Star" being played on the set. If the songs didn't fit the film then they wouldn't have been used. At all. IIRC 3 or 4 songs are heard in the film? Scandalous over the credits too?

[Edited 5/23/16 12:49pm]

naw, the songs just weren't very prominent and you had the sense that they squeezed them in but really could have done without them. That's not to say that Prince wouldn't have worked but I don't think he really had proper time. He was perfect for the characters though. and his music often had a dark, gothic, genius, loner edge to it, he could have done it, no doubt.

PeteSilas said:

Batdance was pretty creative as was the video, i also reiterate, both partyman and batdance were possibly his best videos.

Burns my ass that WB only included the short version of the Partyman video on the Batman blu-ray. The second half is the best part!

SoulAlive said:

Why are you lying and exaggerating? Back in 1989 when the movie came out,I don't recall there being a big ruckus about the songs being out of place in the movie.And I never heard any comedians criticizing those songs.If you don't like the album,fine....but let's not make up shit,OK?

.

Ok, so because you didn't hear anyone talking or joking about how those songs really didn't fit the movie that means it didn't happen?

Got it.

PeteSilas said:

SoulAlive said:

Cloreen said:

SoulAlive said:

Why are you lying and exaggerating? Back in 1989 when the movie came out,I don't recall there being a big ruckus about the songs being out of place in the movie.And I never heard any comedians criticizing those songs.If you don't like the album,fine....but let's not make up shit,OK?

.

Ok, so because you didn't hear anyone talking or joking about how those songs really didn't fit the movie that means it didn't happen?

Got it.

You're acting like there was some big,'anti-Prince music' thing going on with the Batman film and you're completely wrong.His soundtrack was massively successful,so apparently folks liked it,for the most part.

If anything, in my town, Batman was when all the Prince haters shut up for a while... 'cause if Prince was good enough to do the songs in the biggest blockbuster of the year, then maybe that meant that they were too stupid to recognize quality when they heard it.

SoulAlive said:

.His soundtrack was massively successful, so apparently folks liked it, for the most part.

.

Went through this already. Once again: that BATMAN film was a juggernaut. Anything associated with it sold big. You put that Batman logo on friggin' breakfast cereal back then, people bought it.

.

[img:$uid]http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0800/1.jpg[/img:$uid]

.

Now think about this: Prince has well over 1,000 songs out there. The majority of them are good to great. But out of all that material only five made it to number 1 in the US. And one of those five was...."Batdance"? Now are you going to tell me "Batdance" made it to number one on the strength of it being one of Prince's greatest songs or did it hit number one on the strength of the BATMAN film juggernaut? That song and Prince's album were successful because they rode the BATMAN coat-tails. Do I and others find the album and the song "Batdance" great? Of course. But the big numbers they achieved were due to the fact that anything BATMAN related sold big then.

eyewishuheaven said:

I never thought batdance was all that great of a song, but some people have pointed out how unique it was and some people do think it was special. Prince did put out some turds in his time, particularly in his choices of singles. I still think "My Name Is Prince" is one of his worst songs and i hated it since the first time I heard it. Tommy Barbarella said he felt dissapointment when P decided to release that when they had such great songs on the rest of the album.

GirlBrother said:

The album has sold over eleven million copies. That's pretty big. I see the album as the last of his classic run from Dirty Mind onwards. Many people stop at Lovesexy, but Batman has that classic Prince vibe. More importantly, the singles had his last run of classic B-sides. 200 Balloons Feel U Up I Love U In Me Sex They were all real standalone songs, and not reworkings of the A-sides, like many other later B-sides were. That trend started earlier with "This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip" and "Escape." I'm thankful that we got one last flourish of classic B-sides before the 80s ended.

That number is incorrect. U took that from Wikipedia, which anyone can submit...

The actual sales are over 4.7 million copies world wide and certified 2x platinum in the U.S. alone.