Riddle Me This: Batman CD Now Available!
News flash by Lukas Kendall
Film Score Monthly's newest Silver Age Classics release is the Nelson
Riddle soundtrack to the 1966 Batman feature film!
HOLY HEROES!
What's this? The Dynamic Duo in their first FULL COLOR, full-length
big screen adventure? Adam West's hyperbolically serious Caped Crusader
aside Burt Ward's hyperkinetic Boy Wonder, piloting an array of Bat-vehicles
the likes of which the world has never seen! With these scions of justice
on the horizon, what has Gotham City, and indeed the world, to fear? But
wait!
HOLY FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE!
Could it be? A thought so diabolical we scarcely dare give it utterance:
The Riddler, Catwoman, The Joker, and the Penguin...ALL WORKING TOGETHER?
A group of foul feathered fiends sporting jet-powered umbrellas, an exploding
octopus, and a penguin-shaped pre-atomic submarine? Three mind-bogglingly
over-the-top character actors (Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero and Burgess
Meredith) and one fabulous babe in leather (former Miss America Lee Meriweather)
face off against the Caped Crusaders in the 1966 theatrical movie that
introduced ABC's adventure series to an international audience.
HOLY RESTORATION!
Authentic Bat-music has been hard to come by for fans of the TV series.
Two albums were released by Neal Hefti, the composer of the title music,
but these albums had no connection to the music heard on the show. The
underscores were composed by band leader and arranger Nelson Riddle, who
created a memorable, rhythmically-driven sound for the series, referencing
Hefti's familiar title motif for the Batmobile but mostly creating his
own mood with shifting woodwind lines, big band-flavored fight music, and
distinctive musical stingers for each of the show's supervillains. Riddle
expanded on this style for the feature film, which allowed him to write
sustained action cues for location sequences. Since the 1966 movie featured
Batman's most famous villains, Riddle's exciting score is a perfect distillation
of his approach to the series, and its extended passages make it a more
satisfactory listening experience than any random selection of series cues
would have.
HOLY PRICELESS COLLECTION OF ETRUSCAN SNOODS!
Riddle's compositions for the movie are robust, including a mock-patriotic
prologue, a riveting title tune that dynamically introduces all of the
villain motifs, propulsive traveling music for the Bat-vehicles, piratical
cues for the Penguin's henchman, generous helpings of Hefti's Batman theme,
and showcase presentation of the series' swinging, brass-punctuated fight
music. Also included is the slinky sex music for Miss Kitka's seduction
of millionaire Bruce Wayne; the morose song "Plaisir d'Amore"
that plays as the two first rendezvous and later reprises when Wayne (as
Batman) tragically discovers that he's been duped by none other than Catwoman;
and finally, the straight television rendition of Neil Hefti's Batman theme.
Nearly 66 minutes of superheroic Bat-music in crystal clear monophonic
Bat-sound!
$19.95 plus
shipping!
How to Order
Please use one of these three options:
1) Use our secure-server
order form here on the website for credit cards.
or
2) Print
and fax or mail this handy form.
or
3) Call toll-free in the U.S. or Canada at 1-888-345-6335 (overseas:
310-253-9595). There's a 24 hour answering machine, plus a live human being
10AM-6PM Pacific time Monday through Friday.
Subscribers to our "Classics Charter Club" series who have
asked for Silver Age Classics -- your disc is in the mail! Go here for
more info
on our Club if you want to sign up.
Bat-Tracklist
- Acknowledgment/Main Title (2:27)
- Batmobile to Airport (1:58)
- A Good Job (2:20)
- Roger Wilco (2:43)
- Just Ring/Yo Ho, Sir/Let's Find Out (2:20)
- Tricky Buoy (3:21)
- Torpedoes (2:33)
- Holy Polaris (0:58)
- Kitka (1:11)
- Shades of Smolensic (3:17)
- Jet Umbrellas (1:49)
- Filthy Criminals/Chamber 17 (2:43)
- Credulous Creatures/Fine Finkish Friends (2:17)
- Dehydrated/Stand Clear (3:43)
- Flee for Your Life! (2:31)
- False Feathers/Swallow This Pill (3:25)
- My Very Paradise (2:04)
- The Grotto/A Stitch in Time (3:08)
- Emergency Operation (2:54)
- Small Craft (3:27)
- Attack/Take It in Tow (4:16)
- Vials (4:20)
- End Title (1:06)
Bonus Bat Tracks
- Dark Eyes (0:20)
- Plaisir d'Amour (Giovanni Martini) (1:25)
- Again (Lionel Newman) (2:03)
- Batman Theme (Neal Hefti) (0:44)
Total Bat Time: 65:23
Album produced by Lukas Kendall
Executive Producer Nick Redman
Golden Age fans: We have not
forgotten you! We have in production over a half-dozen classic '50s film
scores by Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman and more -- kicking
off next month with a special Elmer Bernstein release from his first decade
in Hollywood. Stay tuned!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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