Search - Marketts :: Batman Theme

Songs in the Key of Batman

Eric Hildebrand | Portland, OR | 09/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in 1968, when the Batman TV show was cancelled, my brother and I were so devastated that my mom went to Rink's department store and bought this album in the original vinyl. Aged 4 and 6, we were disappointed to find out that instead of voices from the Batman TV show, all there was was music. We didn't want music, we wanted Batman himself somehow to be compressed into vinyl (which, actually, one of the villians on the show tried to do I think).



Then a few years later I pulled the album out, played it and started to discover what groovy really means: mysterioso organ (predating the Doors), surf guitars, exhuberant horn arrangements, heavy drums, and a chorus of jazzy singers.



Listening now with the sophistication of an adult, I can still dig all the sonic elements but now also have an appreciation of how tight these songs are, each practically a full overture in itself, compressed into about two-minutes and twenty-seconds. Every cut on this disk has a great hook and a good groove, and many are downright brilliant. All but one of the songs was written by Dick Glasser and Al Capps, who seemed to have an uncanny ability to evoke the dark nights and rain-slicked streets of the classic Batman comics.



Having listened to the original album of the TV show soundtrack, which appears to have been put together very fast in early 1966 for maximum exploitation value, I say unambiguously that the Markett's album is far superior. You can listen to this just for the music, without having seen a single episode of the TV show.



Of course, if you don't like organs, horns, surf guitars, and 1960's grooves, then you shouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole. Not even a ten-foot bat-pole."