Top 10 Batman Tunes

Who's been Batman's most challenging nemesis? Joker? The Black Glove? Emergency toilet breaks? No, the one thing he's never been able to truly conquer is the pop charts. Though while the why-so-serious Dark Knight doesn't look the sort for cutting a rug, the sounds from the Batcave have been an essential part of the Bat-experience - from bedazzling babes with the Batusi and the Elfman and Zimmer soundtracks to the stadium-rocking atmospherics of Batman Live. The charts themselves though have proved to be a troublesome hunting ground for The Caped Crusader - despite nearly 50 years of battle. So without further delay, here's IGN's own list of the top ten Bat-singles: the good, the bad and the very, very ugly... oh, and no bloody Seal.

Holy hit maker, Batman. This chintzy cupcake of easy listening sees Burt Ward's ever-earnest Robin read a particularly ardent piece of fan mail ("I will make your bed for you… I hope you know this is a girl writing"). The real pensmith behind the lush orchestrations? One Frank Zappa, with an arched eyebrow and on the cusp of cultdom. In actuality, during this murky period of his life, Burt Ward also answered his fanmail personally, primarily using his penis (and if you don't belief us, check out his sordid memoir Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights).




The recently expired, frequently inspired Athens, Georgia, quartet half-arsedly pitched this frankly more-expired-than-inspired little instrumental as the theme song for Batman Returns (you can just about make out the traditional "Batman" refrain). After being jilted by the powers that be at Warner Brothers, the Bat-choon instead found a less-likely suitor in the Weather Channel, where it played over their Local Weather updates. Whether people were left shinier or happier by this state of affairs remains to be seen.




One of the many singles off the Batman album, Prince rejigged the steamy end credits cri de coarse into a three-part, 20-minute work out of his favourite muscle… with a little help from Kim Basinger. The duo trade "saucy" dialogue ("Let's go in the bedroom." "What's in there?") before the record spins out into orgasmic giggles and a sprawling guitar solo. Sadly, there was no truth to the urban myth that the more excitable vocals on the recording was supposedly enhanced by His Royal Purpleness genuinely introducing his sceptre to his favoured subject.




Cash really did move everything around the Wu-tang in 95, the Clan cheerfully chucking in their chips as the planet's most-unfeasibly cool hip-hop outfit for a shot at the Bat-soundtrack money. Still, with an in-his-prime RZA supplying the backing, Meth just about manages to come out of this atmospheric filler with his gold teeth intact; with the RZA earning himself extra bat-points for weaving in a typically spindly version of the '66 bat theme in there.





A fan of back-combing and hairspray himself, Tim Burton drafted in the goth-punk mainstays for the leather-clad Bat-sequel soundtrack. One of the few Bat-tunes to be intimately related to the movie it comes from, the music's built around Danny Elfman's orchestrations while Siouxsie drew on the belt-strap tensions between Bruce and Selina for the lyrics, chucking in a few purrs for good measure. It's almost as slinky as the dress Selina wears to the masque ball.





"Please don't ask me to remove my mask," begs West over a rinky dink country backing track, "It's against the code of heroes." This oh-so-novelty record sees the Caped Crusader's attempts to woo the titular object of his affections be continuously interrupted by the boy 'genius', all delivered in West's suavely under…stated style. So it goes, during his post-Batman career-slump, West would sing along to it at personal appearances in full uniform. Which we'd pay a small fortune to see today.





Prince was such a huge Bat-fan growing up that he was able to crank out a whole album to tie in with the movie; another element of the summer of '89's total Bat- immersion. A last-minute replacement for a darker Joker-led track, Prince instead recycles various themes from his Batman album - 'The Future', 'Electric Chair' - into one marimba-led funk-house tune, complete with vocal snippets from Burton's movie and the iconic Bat refrain from he 66 show. Not bad for some guy pissing about with a sample machine and a bad ass Casio.




Say what you like about pompous, politician-pandering bombastic bawlers U2 - mainly because it's easy and fun - but their one-two punch of Achtung Baby and Zooropa are still early 90's high points. This outtake from those sessions got retooled into the lead single off Batman Forever, all tarty irony, cinematic strings and air-punching riffs - a suitably winking statement of the franchise's reinvention intentions after all the downbeat (and uncommercial) gothery of Returns.





Batman & Robin remains the nipple-tastic neon nightmare of Batfans - meet its one saving grace: a typically dynamic onslaught motored by a doomy monster riff and Billy Corgan's reedy, sexy snarls, it was the only thing about the movie that picked up an award - a Grammy - that wasn't a Razzie. One of the band's final highspots before disappearing up Billy Corgan's arse clutching a synthesiser, the tune's got bugger all to do with Batman & Robin, but in this case that's probably an advantage.




What do The Who, The Jam, Link Wray, The Flaming Lips and Snoop Dogg all have in common? Yep, they've had their wicked way with the utterly iconic Bat theme. What John Williams did for the horror movie with Jaws, Neal Hefti had done for costumed adventurers nearly a decade earlier - turning a few simple notes into a motorised riff so instant and primal that it ka-pows itself into your memory after one listen. One-part James Bond theme to one-part West Coast easy listening, with a squeeze of garage rock, it remains synonymous with the Caped Crusader - and superheroes - nearly 50 years on. Na-na, na-na, na-na, na-na...

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