the batman files - disc 1 (Leaping Fox)

Not long after this blog began, I made a compilation of Batman material that has since been removed, "out of print," if you will.  It was more of a sampler, a little bit of everything that was out there (novelty songs, audio, theme songs, video game themes, spoken word, etc.), and the historian in me always wanted to replace it with a more comprehensive version.

NINE YEARS later, which is hard to believe, the result is completed at last. This project is a three-disc set, and is intended to be more of a complete look, a dossier or archive of what exists, music-wise.

Before we get started, let's discuss what this project is NOT.  Incredibly, there is more audio material to collect featuring Batman than any other super hero (yet there are like a million songs titled "Superman"), and one of the main reasons for this is the year 1966, when a worldwide phenomenon took place.  When I began to gather all of the sources, and was trying to figure out how to best present them, I realized there are really five categories of material: 

1)  Theme songs to the many Batman shows and films over the years (as usual, we are going to ignore the more modern, lesser endeavors).  This is called "bat-history."

2) General songs and instrumentals about Batman.  "bat-songs," naturally.

3) "Bat-Mania" records, which were issued during the worldwide excitement for the 1966 launch of the ABC-TV show.  These include cash-in attempts by no-names, cash-in attempts by big names, and even singles issued by the show's stars themselves.  Everyone was jumping on the band, uh, bat-wagon. As the largest section, there are 40 tracks in all, under the title "bat-mania 1966."

4) Included in the above topic is a sub-category, covers of the theme song to the 1966 show.  Luckily, we have recently addressed this section, or else this project would be five discs instead.

5) Lastly, "spoken word" audio.  Book-and-record adventures, the various and wonderful Power Records releases, and OTR (Old Time Radio)-type stuff were excluded.  Which brings up the following point:

One last note:  Also during the bat-splosion of 1966, several complete, Batman-themed LP's were issued.  Since these albums are 100% Batman material, it made no sense to cherry-pick tracks from them, and instead focus this collection on singles and freestanding tracks.  A complete list of these albums is in the liner notes to discs 2 & 3.

Now that that is all out of the way.........please enjoy.