Batman theme composer dies at 85

Neal Hefti, the man responsible for the "energetic" theme tune for the TV series Batman, has died aged 85, the LA Times reports The former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer passed away on Saturday at the end of a long career, encompassing multiple film scores and collaboration with some musical greats including Count …

[Kevin Dwyer]

Dinner

Dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner BATMAAAN

[Anonymous John]

Well, someone has to.

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Deadman!

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Deadman!

Deadman, Deadman, Deadman!

Mine's the cape and mask.

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to...

The Count Basie album "The Atomic Mr Basie", with all tracks composed and arranged by Hefti and masterfully played by Basie's big band. Well worth a listen.

[Sam]

@Anonymous John

Git. Foiled again.

[Bryan James]

Erm

I don't do music but if there was vocals saying "Batman" how did it win a grammy for best instrumental exactly?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Erm

>"if there was vocals saying "Batman" how did it win a grammy for best instrumental"

Same way Milli Vanilli won a grammy for their 'singing', I'd guess!

[Gulfie]

Holy Coffin Handles Batman!

Is there no respect for the dead? No point in getting in a flap about it I suppose. At least we now know he's not a Vampire Batman composer ;-)

I'm off before somebody decides to clip my ear. Mine's the one with the upside-down pockets (geddit?).

That's enough bat related jokes for now. I'll not see you all later. Hang in there... don't get in a flap y'all.

[Tom]

@Bryan James

Probably the same way Jethro Tull won the acoustic award for Aqualung. Sometimes there's something out there that just deserves an award and they don't have a category for it. I think they just spin a roulette wheel to decide which category they are going to sacrifice to give the award.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Bryan James

"if there was vocals saying "Batman" how did it win a grammy for best instrumental exactly?"

Well, is it a song? One word does not a song make -- it's certainly no song. It may not be technically "instrumental", but if we define "an instrumental" as "any piece of music that isn't a song"....

But it was a piece of absolute genius -- it captured the primary-colour-comic-hero feel in a way none of the Spiderman, Hulk etc etc cartoons, live-action serieses and feature films failed to do. A blend of music and abstract lyric, like a comic itself is a blend of drawing and short text. Compare with the prosaic-yet-wordy "spiderman, spiderman, does whatever a spider can" or the 60s Hulk's music-only opening and closing titles.

But for all that, it's still naff! Simulateous geniusness and naffness -- a truly remarkable accomplishment!

Big up -- nuff respeck -- etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Instrumental discussion

If somebody tried to claim half of the royalties for writing the lyrics (one word repeated), it would be laughed out of court. Just because voices were used as one of the instruments doesn't really make it a song. A working technical definition of "Instrumental" might be "anything without a lyrics-writer credit."

I love the description "It was part serious, part silly: just like the series." It was just right.

[J]

Good stuff...

I remember watching reruns in the 1980's, and the theme has not left my head to this day. That's immortality for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC - durn your hide

now i've got:

"spiderman, spiderman, does whatever a spider can"

Spiderpig, spiderpig, does whatever a spiderpig does....a la homer simpson running through my feeble head.

[Be Reasonable]

Boo hoo hoo...

...and a bottle of rum.

[Anonymous Coward]

@@Instrumental discussion

> A working technical definition of "Instrumental" might be "anything without a lyrics-writer credit."

Oops. What about uncredited lyrics? What about uncredited music? I suppose you could say "lyrics: uncredited", but then, so are the lyrics for the Batman theme tune.

[Herby]

Tune in tommorow...

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

Geez, that really dates me, I remember the series as first runs. Of course, it was the 60's.

..."If you remember the 60's you weren't there!"

[Alan]

@ Bryan James

For the same reason Frank Zappa's Grammy award winning Jazz From Hell had a PMRC Warning Offensive Lyrics sticker despite being a true instrumental work and completely lyric free.

There's also the fact it got a Grammy award when none of the Grammy panel had listen to a single note...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah! Humbug!

Spider-Pig is NOT FUNNY damnit!

RARRRRRGH!

/bursts into flames