Been checking through "The Vault" but can't find info...

Since both these songs are based on the same groove, which song was recorded first? I believe "200 Balloons" came first and then "Batdance" incorporates portions of the same groove/instrumentals?

Discie said:

Yeah,I think "200 Balloons" came first.When the filmmakers rejected that song,Prince used elements of it in "Batdance".

200 Balloons came first, it was the original 'song'.
Batdance started out as just an album sampler remix,
which partially used the beat from 200 Balloons.

to be honest with you, all the stuff from that album for that movie sounds like some stuff Prince just had laying around and decided to release. Yeah he got an award for the album and stuff but I've never heard a soundtrack that didn't fit a movie more in all my day.

As a die-hard Prince fan and a die-hard Batman fan there was no more unperfect marriage. That camelle stuff doesn't fit the dark night persona at all. It make that campy movie even more campier. I think I just made that word up.

Thanks to that album, my Purple Heart started to Bleed red blood again instead of purple. Prince when thru a really childish Period that started off with Lovesexy. I could see the metamorph happen during Around the World in a Day. I could see that I was slowly losing my Idol to one of his gemini twins and it was painful to watch. I LOOOOVVVEEED That raw organic Prince from Controversy, 1999 and Purple Rain. Not the Prince playing hopscotch on stage with a bunch of girls. Da hell? I wonder if I have Wendy and Lisa to blame for that. Prince was the SHIZNIT when he had men on stage with him and left the women in the bedroom. Dez Dickerson, proof positive.
[Edited 8/19/09 5:25am]

I just want to go on record as saying I completely disagree with everything 1dell just said. Thank you, that is all.

Thats cool moderator. We all like prince for different reasons. He's multifaceted but the Prince that REALLY appealed to me I lost LONNNGGG time ago. I've been waiting around hoping he'll come back. Now I REALLY enjoy the 3 Chains of Gold Prince, and the Diamonds and Pearls Prince and the Get Off Prince. 3121 Prince was pretty cool too.

By the way, how come my profile pic isn't showing up? is it waiting approval or something?

Anxiety said:

BorisFishpaw is right. "200 Balloons" was written for the "Trust" scene in the movie, but refused by Tim Burton. Prince took the beat and some of the ideas in the song and turned it into "Batdance", making "200 balloons" a near prototype for "Batdance". I always loved the song and think it would have worked better in the movie.

1dell said:

i dunno about your avatar pic - nothing is showing up for us to approve, so you might want to try submitting it again.

as for prince/batman, i think that AT THE TIME, prince was a perfect choice for a tim burton movie about batman. you have to keep in mind that in 1989, batman wasn't quite the uber-dark, uber-gritty character he became with the 'dark knight' franchise we know today, so there was still room to play with the whimsical, funny-book aspect of batman's persona. and in 1989, prince was going through a very colorful, whimsical phase in his music where even his darker material had an over-the-top, circus-like feel. which of course calls to mind tim burton's sensibilities as a filmmaker, especially around that time.

i think the big challenge with having prince record music for someone else's film is to reign in prince's ideas and ego to conform to someone else's creative vision. i think if the collaboration went off track anywhere, it would be there. while i think overall prince's music fit, i think there could have been some moments where prince was trying to make the next great PRINCE album, rather than focusing on making a great BATMAN soundtrack. but burton had to anticipate that to some extent.

for me, though, the batman soundtrack is very green and purple and red and black and yellow. it's an album full of bright garish comic book colors. it's whimsical and kitschy and dark in a playful way. it's exactly what you'd want for a tim burton movie about a superhero and an evil clown. it would not work at all for the latest cinematic incarnation of batman, which is all about being grim and dreary and hyper-real. NIN might be a better match for the recent batman movies, and even THAT might be a little too colorful.

"Batdance" was a last-minute replacement for a brooding track titled "Dance with the Devil,"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batdance
[Edited 8/19/09 9:06am]

i like 200 balloons, and i've always wondered what would have happened had Tim Burton actually used it. Imagine it as the first single instead of Batdance. Would it have been a big hit, considering the hype of the movie? It's a funky, kinda out-there song... I think it would have been successful.

Anxiety said:

If u look at the IMDB trivia for the Batman movie,it says MJ was the first choice to do the soundtrack. I love the cd and the following songs were lying around paisley park and werent written for the Batman soundtrack. - The future,electric chair,trust and vicki waiting. If Prince never did this album we wouldve gotten the ORIGINAL rave un2 the joy fantastic album

dance4me3121 said:

Not sure if that MJ thing is correct. I thought Jack Nicholson was a Prince fan and they were already using Baby I'm a Star and 1999 in the scenes that ended up with Partyman and Trust. That's why they approach Prince to do original songs for those scenes. He did them and also ended up recoring an album. That's how I heard it anyway...something like that.

I think part of the reason some people think Prince's soundtrack didn't quite fit the film is that Prince was in an odd position with this project. Prince wasn't writing the score to set the dramatic moods for the movie's scenes--that was Danny Elfman's role. And Prince's music wasn't going to be front-and-center in the film like with Purple Rain. If not for "Partyman" and "Trust" being used somewhat obviously, you'd really not even know Prince was involved with the film since intrumental parts of other songs are used incidentally.

I have always wondered if there was some scene with Bruce and Vicky getting in on while "Scandalous" played in the background that ended up on the cutting room floor.

dance4me3121 said:

You have to take info from IMDB and Wiki with a grain of salt. Anyone can add "info" to those sites.

Poplife88 said:

The story as I've heard it is that the screenwriters wanted Prince to do the darker songs and MJ to do the love songs. Think that's on the DVD commentary?

Obviously that was an impossible dream. But getting Prince for the soundtrack (over Burton's objections) wasn't impossible since it was a WB project.

The Future... so futuristic !

Scandalous... so scandalous !

Elecric Chair... so guilty !

Vicki Waiting... so Vicki didn't laught at all !

Batdance... so don't stop dancin' !

Stop !


He perfectly captures the mood and theme of this film.
His songs are full of dialogue from the movie and from his imagination.

Prince put a lot of heart, soul and funk into this recording.


Gemini/PartyMan video... one of his best ever... + so many remix & B-sides ... such a great period :

* "Batdance"

1. "Batdance (The Batmix)" (maxi-single)
2. "Batdance (Vicki Vale Mix)" (maxi-single)
3. "200 Balloons"


* "Partyman"

1. "Partyman"
2. "Feel U Up"
3. "The Purple Party Mix" (maxi-single)
4. "Partyman Music Mix" (maxi-single)
5. "Partyman Video Mix" (maxi-single)


* "The Arms of Orion"

1. "The Arms of Orion" W/Sheena Easton
2. "I Love U in Me"


* "Scandalous"

1. "Scandalous"
2. "When 2 R In Love"
3. "The Crime" ("The Scandalous Sex Suite" maxi-single)
4. "The Passion" ("The Scandalous Sex Suite" maxi-single)
5. "The Rapture" ("The Scandalous Sex Suite" maxi-single)
6. "Sex" "The Scandalous Sex Suite" maxi-single


* "The Future"

1. "The Future" (remix)
2. "Electric Chair" (remix)

1dell said:

I agree with some of what you are saying. Like the childish acts. Like you said, you can start to see when ATWIAD came out. I think the same, that Prince started to act different when Wendy joined the band. When the girls (Wendy & Lisa) got involved he and the music changed. And out came playful, a more girly Prince. I think if Dez would have stayed it would have been a totally different story.

Well according 2 "Prince: Life & Times", this project started after Tim Burton was using "Baby I'm A Star" and "1999" (I believe) as background music 4 the parade and museum scenes... this worked well and WB tapped Prince 2 lend a COUPLE of songs 2 the soundtrack... Prince, being the workaholic that he is, decided 2 compose more than the suggested amount of music 4 the album... WB, seeing the potential 2 mend the "Lovesexy" disaster and get another cross media hit in the vein of "Purple Rain", decided 2 let him take reign over the soundtrack... WB also knew well in advance that the "Batman" entity was huge enough 2 put 2 soundtracks out on the market (Elfman's score as well as Prince's album) so they couldn't lose...now IN MY OPINION it also helped that Jack Nicholson was a huge Prince fan and 2 negotiate his contract 2 play The Joker he was given a nice chunk of box office and merchandise earnings (this IS true) and I guess the folks at WB thought his say on the matter would make sense... its also a fact that indeed the original idea was 4 Michael Jackson 2 do the lighter songs while Prince manages the darker tracks...

now back 2 the original question lol...

I believe "200 Balloons" was the first of the tracks cuz like some1 said above, "Batdance" is pretty much an album sampler with its many samples of songs such as "The Future", "Electric Chair" and even the Batman outtake "Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic" among others
[Edited 8/19/09 21:08pm]

Didn't Prince have to sign something from the publishing rights on this album too? Hence why no Batman tracks ever ended up on any compilations..././?

funkylust said:

I thought the vocal sampling from the movie was the reason for not including songs such as Batdance on hit compilations - the profits would have to be shared. But you could be right because Arms Of Orion and Scandalous could have been included. 200 Balloons was on The Hits/B-Sides, but that really doesn't count.

Absolutey! I noticed that prince by himself in the beginning sounded VERY commercial and VERY motownish. But when Dez came along his music turned toward rock and punk. I LOVED that. Then insert Vanity and we get stuff like 1999 and Purple Rain.

Man! I loved me some Rude boy!

Rinluv said:

Anxiety said:

I think you're wrong: Frank Miller's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns", arguably one of the biggest influences on the current Batman movie franchise, was published in 1986.

200 Balloons would've been a better fit in the movie, especially since the scene it was supposed to be in WAS the balloon scene of the movie ...

I don't know when "Arrogance," was written, I just thought I'd comment on believing it should have been the theme song for "Batman." It just fits.

JonM1988 said:

I read this it was in some tabloid before the film came out they mentioned that they used songs from purple rain and they where in talks with Prince because Jack Nicholson asked for him cant remember anything about MJ being mentioned. Loved the b-sides of the singles like Partyman's 'feel u up'. maybe that was Prince trying to get more money out of the record deal

dance4me3121 said:

How could vicki waiting be a previously recored song - it's about Vicki Vale, the character in the movie.

And isn't the Future a take off of a line in the movie?

And perhaps I'm in the minority, but I've always loved the song Batdance. I've always thought it was one of his best music videos too.

Easy, Prince is a master of rewording lyrics. Although lately that may not be evident with his choice of lyrics in order to "Christianize his older recordings to fit his JW status.

I wasn't speaking of the vocals I was speaking of the music period.

alandail said:

alandail said:

Vicki Waiting was actually a pre-existing song.
It was originally called "Anna Waiting" (about Anna Fantastic)
It was then retitled and the lyrics adapted to fit in with the movie.
[Edited 8/28/09 6:31am]