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This is a comments thread about FSM CD: Batman
 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 3:43 PM   
 By:   Mark Ford   (Member)

Holy real Batman music...

I'm so glad FSM produced this CD. It's almost as good as having the original soundtrack to the TV series since most of the themes, including the main recurring villains' themes from the TV show, all appear here in the movie score.

When Batman debuted in '65 I was in third grade and it was the first time I was completely captivated by a TV show. I became a huge Batman fan and was even nicknamed Batman by some of my classmates because of my mania. Funny how it was a serious adventure show back then to kids and a comedy to adults. That's hard to do, but the producers really pulled it off well.

Anyway, thanks again FSM for helping me finally get some real Batman music, not the third party crap I bought when I was a kid. Nelson Riddle, and later Billy May, greatly contributed to making this a pop culture classic...and Neal Hefti too.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel...

 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 4:14 PM   
 By:   Moonie   (Member)

When I was a young tyke I watched Batman every week , and I loved this movie, I got the biggest kick out of the scene where Batman is running around with a bomb trying to get rid of it , and running into the Salvation Army and such , even small ducks, Great.
I bought this cd when FSM released it right away.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 4:29 PM   
 By:   franz_conrad   (Member)

The Salvation army band gag is one of my favourite uses of source music in a film. Very funny. Tati would have been proud of some of that stuff.

 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 7:05 PM   
 By:   ZapBrannigan   (Member)

Funny how it was a serious adventure show back then to kids and a comedy to adults.

Yeah, I was at just the right age to take it deadly serious. I can remember one night my parents were howling at an Adam West line and I shouted "Don't laugh!" They made me so mad by laughing at my hero. And they found me funny as well.

 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 8:02 PM   
 By:   Gary S.   (Member)

I used to tape the episodes on my little reel to reel tape recorder so my kid brother who was off normally playing little league basketball could at least catch the audio. I still have the old soundtrack from the tv show(mostly dialog) and I had the 45 of the theme.
I remember buying the movie related topps cards which had a larger picture composed by putting 4 of the reverse sides togother. A pity the movie was made before Batgirl showed up on the series. It was also a pity Julie Newmar wasn't Catwoman. The music brings back all those memories.

 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 8:30 PM   
 By:   Mark Ford   (Member)

I second the motion that I wish Julie Newmar was the catwoman in the movie. If I remember right, she was my first crush as a boy. I mean that tall slender body in the skintight catsuit. And she had those intruiging eyes. When I watched the series again not too long ago I felt the same way, only she seemed hotter than ever! Purrrrrfect!

That said, not having her play Catwoman doesn't detract a bit from this fine CD, which is the point of these comments after all!

 
 Posted:   Feb 11, 2009 - 8:42 PM   
 By:   Gary S.   (Member)

I second the motion that I wish Julie Newmar was the catwoman in the movie. If I remember right, she was my first crush as a boy. I mean that tall slender body in the skintight catsuit. And she had those intruiging eyes. When I watched the series again not too long ago I felt the same way, only she seemed hotter than ever!

Purrrrrfect!


Lee Merriweather was fine, although she will always be Barnaby Jones' daughter.

 
 Posted:   Feb 12, 2009 - 5:15 AM   
 By:   Moonie   (Member)

I second the motion that I wish Julie Newmar was the catwoman in the movie.


Julie Newmar will always be catwoman.

 
 Posted:   Feb 12, 2009 - 6:04 AM   
 By:   Scott McOldsmith   (Member)

I love this movie and score. I actually never had a problem with Lee Meriwhether as Catwoman. Actually, I think she did a better job as "Kitka" then Julie would have. Julie is sexy as the day is long, but she was - well - weird. She had a very distanced acting style and may not have pulled off the romantic scenes with Bruce Wayne quite as well. But, you never know.

Either way, she was better than Eartha Kitt.

I do remember that one cue seems to be missing from the CD that I always liked. It's a short, fairly inconsequential cue, but still; it's the kind of "traveling" trumpet music as Kitka drives up to the Ye Olde Benbow Tavern, after the press conference. It's a nice jazzy riff, but - as I said - minor. The album is amazing.

 
 Posted:   Jun 18, 2011 - 12:39 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

There's a production detail about the music on this CD that got overlooked in the past that I just discovered today. For the source track "Plaisir d'Amour" the notes say, "A French lounge singer serenades Bruce Wayne and Miss Kitka with a famous melody...." The singer is never identified in the notes or in the credits.



It turns out, the "French lounge singer" in that scene is actually Julie Gregg, who had just played the Penguin's henchmoll Finella in the last episode of Season 1 (with the movie beginning production right away). She even wears the same gown she wore in the final scene of her episode.



Considering that in her episode as Penguin's moll, Julie was affecting a high-pitched Marilyn Monroe voice, it's no wonder that her actual singing voice for this brief walk-on didn't make even diehard Batfans recognize her at first! But Julie did have quite a fine singing background and went on to win a Tony nomination for the 1968 musical, "The Happy Time." (She also later had a regular role as a nightclub singer on the short-lived TV series "Banyon")

 
 Posted:   Jun 18, 2011 - 2:46 PM   
 By:   'Lenny Bruce' Marshall   (Member)

Damn, Adam West was one good-looking boy. Too bad he couldn't act.
frown
Lee Merriwether?



nah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 Posted:   Jun 18, 2011 - 10:06 PM   
 By:   ZapBrannigan   (Member)

There's a production detail about the music on this CD that got overlooked in the past that I just discovered today.


Great catch, great documentation, Eric. The gown being re-used is a nice touch. Thanks for that.

I'll bet the movie's costume budget was doing double duty to make the adjacent regular episodes look better. No doubt Adam West is wearing the same finely tailored tuxedo.

Having the ready-made TV batmobile and standing sets on hand made the movie more affordable-- a reverse example of what happened with VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

 
 
 Posted:   Jun 19, 2011 - 1:20 PM   
 By:   suburbanite   (Member)


I'll bet the movie's costume budget was doing double duty to make the adjacent regular episodes look better. No doubt Adam West is wearing the same finely tailored tuxedo.



Good point. I think they were also able to use the Batboat on the regular series before the movie because it had been built for the movie, so the movie budget helped the show in that aspect, too.

 
 Posted:   Jun 21, 2011 - 1:11 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

One other note about the music. I have to admit I ended up keeping my FSM copy even as I bought the reissue because it helped me solve a dilemma of where to file this score on my shelf, under TV or Movies. Now I put the reissue under movies and put the FSM under TV music!

 
 Posted:   Jun 22, 2011 - 1:13 AM   
 By:   ZapBrannigan   (Member)

One other note about the music. I have to admit I ended up keeping my FSM copy even as I bought the reissue because it helped me solve a dilemma of where to file this score on my shelf, under TV or Movies. Now I put the reissue under movies and put the FSM under TV music!

I can't make that movie/TV distinction on my shelf. For instance, I put all the STAR TREK CDs together; LOIS AND CLARK goes with SUPERGIRL and the many Williams SUPERMAN CDs; BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES goes with the FSM BATMAN...

 
 Posted:   Sep 17, 2012 - 8:33 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

I've always thought of music for TV as requiring a separate category from movie music in the same way that I keep Broadway and film musicals separate for organization purposes. So the sequencing for film music is alphabetical by composer with their respective films within arranged chronologically, while TV music is sequenced chronologically according to series debut.

Back to this title. Amidst all our excitement over the large levels of TV music that's now becoming available, we still need to one day see the Batman series music make it to CD too. The movie gave us a good representation of music that was used in the series during Season 2 but a lot of great Riddle cues I associate with the series weren't used in the film (the classic "fight" cue among others). And I know someone who definitely wants Billy May's Season 3 stuff for the Siren episodes with Joan Collins! smile

 
 Posted:   Sep 17, 2012 - 8:45 AM   
 By:   mstrox   (Member)

It's very possible that the same muddled rights issues that are holding up release of a Batman DVD release would also hold up the release of a soundtrack.

Very unfortunate on both counts.

 
 Posted:   Sep 17, 2012 - 8:54 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

True, I'm sure that's exactly what the problem has been all these years (though it's interesting how the TV theme music arrangement managed to get included on this CD since that version is not used in the movie). That said, the recent deal where Warners is now able to license merchandise using the likenesses of things from the TV show was a good step forward that makes the light at the end of the tunnel for a DVD release a little brighter than its been in recent years (though by no means imminent) and presumably the use of the music for CD release would also come under any kind of arrangement that finally gets worked out.

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 17, 2012 - 10:13 AM   
 By:   JThree   (Member)


It would be nice if the Adam West Batman tv show would get its own soundtrack release in the future.

JThree

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 17, 2012 - 10:14 AM   
 By:   JThree   (Member)


It would be nice if the Adam West Batman tv show would get its own soundtrack release in the future.

JThree

 
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