Film Score Monthly CD: Batman (2024)

Holy Heroes!

What's this? The Dynamic Duo in their first FULL COLOR, full-length big screen adventure? Adam West's hyperbolically serious Caped Crusader aside Burt Ward's hyperkinetic Boy Wonder, piloting an array of Bat-vehicles the likes of which the world has never seen! With these scions of justice on the horizon, what has Gotham City, and indeed the world, to fear? But wait!

Holy Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!

Could it be? A thought so diabolical we scarcely dare give it utterance: The Riddler, Catwoman, The Joker, and the Penguin...ALL WORKING TOGETHER? A group of foul feathered fiends sporting jet-powered umbrellas, an exploding octopus, and a penguin-shaped pre-atomic submarine? Three mind-bogglingly over-the-top character actors (Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith) and one fabulous babe in leather (former Miss America Lee Meriweather) face off against the Caped Crusaders in the 1966 theatrical movie that introduced ABC's adventure series to an international audience.

Holy Restoration!

Authentic Bat-music has been hard to come by for fans of the TV series. Two albums were released by Neal Hefti, the composer of the title music, but these albums had no connection to the music heard on the show. The underscores were composed by band leader and arranger Nelson Riddle, who created a memorable, rhythmically-driven sound for the series, referencing Hefti's familiar title motif for the Batmobile but mostly creating his own mood with shifting woodwind lines, big band-flavored fight music, and distinctive musical stingers for each of the show's supervillains. Riddle expanded on this style for the feature film, which allowed him to write sustained action cues for location sequences. Since the 1966 movie featured Batman's most famous villains, Riddle's exciting score is a perfect distillation of his approach to the series, and its extended passages make it a more satisfactory listening experience than any random selection of series cues would have.

Holy Priceless Collection Of Etruscan Snoods!

Riddle's compositions for the movie are robust, including a mock-patriotic prologue, a riveting title tune that dynamically introduces all of the villain motifs, propulsive traveling music for the Bat-vehicles, piratical cues for the Penguin's henchman, generous helpings of Hefti's Batman theme, and showcase presentation of the series' swinging, brass-punctuated fight music. Also included is the slinky sex music for Miss Kitka's seduction of millionaire Bruce Wayne; the morose song "Plaisir d'Amore" that plays as the two first rendezvous and later reprises when Wayne (as Batman) tragically discovers that he's been duped by none other than Catwoman; and finally, the straight television rendition of Neil Hefti's Batman theme. Nearly 66 minutes of superheroic Bat-music in crystal clear monophonic Bat-sound!