The Real Reason Prince Did The Music For Tim Burton's 'Batman'
Given that Nirvana was such a huge component of 2022's The Batman, it seems entirely appropriate to delve into the music that has been tied to the iconic DC character. From the quirky and comical Adam West television series theme to Danny Elfman's 1989 and Hans Zimmer's 2005 operatic scores, the music of Batman has left its mark on show biz. But like Nirvana, hugely popular artists have also made their contributions to the Caped Crusader's films and television series. There's Seal's "Kissed By A Rose" from Batman Forever, Siouxsie And The Banshees' "Face To Face" from Batman Returns, and, of course, Prince's soundtrack to Tim Burton's original Batman film.
Songs like "Partyman", "Lemon Crush", and "Batdance" became massively popular after the blockbuster was released. While some debate whether this was Prince's best work, there's no doubt that it was hugely memorable. But between Prince's star power and the outrageous stories surrounding him, many wondered why he'd want to take part in a superhero franchise to begin with. Here's the real reason why Prince made the 1989 Batman soundtrack...
Why Is Prince's Music In Batman?
Prince's "Batman" spent a whopping six weeks at the very top of the Billboard chart when it was first released. And "Batdance" was the acclaimed artists first hit since "Kiss" in 1986. Despite Batman being a commercial success (as well as a commercial property), Prince managed to make the album uniquely his with the help of director Tim Burton. According to a 1990 interview with Rolling Stone, Prince was happy to collaborate with the filmmaker, who was a massive fan of his.
At the time, Prince was struggling after getting himself into massive debt. According to an interview with Variety, Prince's manager Albert Magnoli claimed that Prince was spending far too much money producing work. Not just work that never saw the light of day but work that did and "required" a lot of extra trappings to make happen. In other words, Prince was extremely particular and extremely lavish. From Albert's perspective, Prince never wanted to admit this. But he did hand over the financial operations to Albert. And it was him who made the "Batman" soundtrack happen.
"I immediately did a forensic kind of financial search as to what was really going on, and it was more horrible than anybody thought. So [the plan] was about trying to bring revenue into the operation without overextending him to the point where no one would be interested in getting involved in anything he wanted to do," Albert Magnoli explained, according to Variety.
In 1988, Prince had released his fifth studio album, "Lovesexy", so there was just no way that the record company was keen on spending money on another Prince record for at least a couple of years. According to Albert, record labels needed at least two years to fully "exploit the potential" of an album, therefore they needed more time with it. Doing a movie soundtrack, however, wasn't really in the purview of the record label. It was in the hands of the movie studio.
"The ‘Batman’ album came into being when I was contacted by [‘Batman’ producer] Mark Canton," Albert continued. "I went to Prince and said, ‘This will help us bring revenue into the system without having to expose you to another album.’”
Albert knew that Prince had a contract with Warner Brothers after his work on "Purple Rain". And Gary LeMel, the head of Warner Brothers Music knew that Prince's famously purple image just visually gelled with Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Batman's antagonist, The Joker. The icing on the cake was the fact that Jack Nicholson (who was paid an absolute fortune to headline Batman) was a humongous Prince fan.
How Prince Collaborated With The Batman Filmmakers
When Prince collaborated on The Batman soundtrack, many artists were doing the same. In fact, the 1980s and the 1990s were filled with major talent headlining the music for some of the industries biggest films. But Prince and his representatives wanted things to work a little differently...
"When I met with [Batman director] Tim [Burton] I said, 'OK, filmmaker to filmmaker, you don’t want 12 songs in this movie. You’ve got Danny Elfman doing a film score,'" Albert Magnoli explained in an interview with The Ringer. "And Tim said, 'Yes, that’s true. Where do we put all those songs?' I said, 'Let’s get on the phone and talk to Danny.' We had a conference call with Danny and Danny confirmed a film score that was big. How do you interlace songs into that? It would be crazy. Almost impossible. I suggested, 'What if the Batman album by Prince is inspired by the movie? That way Danny does his thing for the movie. Prince watches the movie and he’s inspired to write songs. Everybody gets what they want.'"
The result not only helped Batman become a massive success at the box office, but also took Prince out of debt and ultimately revamped his entire career.
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