Post by erik on Mar 27, 2021 17:19:23 GMT -5
Longtime jazz musician and (frequent) film composer Neal Hefti ended up with his lone big pop hit with the theme from one of TV's greatest "camp" TV shows. That hit is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
BATMAN THEME (Neal Hefti; RCA; 1966)—Although there had been small screen and big screen versions of famous superhero comic books well before it became standard-issue for Hollywood to do this (the big impetus coming in 1978 via the masterful Superman: The Movie), most of them were done on the cheap, as was the case with Sam Katzman, the pre-Roger Corman “King of the Cheapies” who produced a series of Superman-inspired films were expenses were indeed spared. And then there was Batman, a DC Comics creation of Bob Kane that began in 1939—the Caped Crusader who, along with his friend Robin, had to battle the worst of the worst in Gotham City (a surrogate for New York City, as Metropolis was in Superman). As with Superman, there were low-budget Batman films between the character’s creation in 1939 and the early 1960’s. By the early 1960’s, the character’s popularity was beginning to wane; and DC Comics was considering putting the kybosh on the character. But then ABC came along and, via 20th Century Fox television, created a live-action TV show based on the character, and starring Adam West and Robin Ward as the Dynamic Duo. Featuring a variety of top-name actors like Cesar Romero (as The Joker) and Burgess Meredith (as The Penguin), the series, which ran from 1966 to 1968, was judged to be a literal comic book, virtually campy in every way imaginable—and yet its three-year run was hideously successful. Part of that had to do with the very catchy theme music written, composed, and performed by long-time jazz trumpeter and bandleader Neal Hefti. A veteran of various big bands of the 1940s, including Woody Herman, Hefti also gained a reputation in Hollywood; during the same year he composed the theme for Batman, he also composed the music for the unconventional 1966 Western Duel At Diablo. While the music for the TV series episodes was composed and conducted by either Billy May or Nelson Riddle, Hefti’s theme song stayed in there. His original version was subsumed by the surf-rock cover by the Marketts, which had hit #17 in March 1966, while Hefti’s stalled at #35 on the Hot 100 at the same time. Still, it was one of many reasons why Batman, for all its campy overacting, stayed on the air as long as did. Hefti later composed the music for the 1968 Neil Simon comedy film classic The Odd Couple. He passed away at his home in Toluca Lake, California (in the San Fernando Valley) on October 11, 2008 at the age of 85.
BATMAN THEME (Neal Hefti; RCA; 1966)—Although there had been small screen and big screen versions of famous superhero comic books well before it became standard-issue for Hollywood to do this (the big impetus coming in 1978 via the masterful Superman: The Movie), most of them were done on the cheap, as was the case with Sam Katzman, the pre-Roger Corman “King of the Cheapies” who produced a series of Superman-inspired films were expenses were indeed spared. And then there was Batman, a DC Comics creation of Bob Kane that began in 1939—the Caped Crusader who, along with his friend Robin, had to battle the worst of the worst in Gotham City (a surrogate for New York City, as Metropolis was in Superman). As with Superman, there were low-budget Batman films between the character’s creation in 1939 and the early 1960’s. By the early 1960’s, the character’s popularity was beginning to wane; and DC Comics was considering putting the kybosh on the character. But then ABC came along and, via 20th Century Fox television, created a live-action TV show based on the character, and starring Adam West and Robin Ward as the Dynamic Duo. Featuring a variety of top-name actors like Cesar Romero (as The Joker) and Burgess Meredith (as The Penguin), the series, which ran from 1966 to 1968, was judged to be a literal comic book, virtually campy in every way imaginable—and yet its three-year run was hideously successful. Part of that had to do with the very catchy theme music written, composed, and performed by long-time jazz trumpeter and bandleader Neal Hefti. A veteran of various big bands of the 1940s, including Woody Herman, Hefti also gained a reputation in Hollywood; during the same year he composed the theme for Batman, he also composed the music for the unconventional 1966 Western Duel At Diablo. While the music for the TV series episodes was composed and conducted by either Billy May or Nelson Riddle, Hefti’s theme song stayed in there. His original version was subsumed by the surf-rock cover by the Marketts, which had hit #17 in March 1966, while Hefti’s stalled at #35 on the Hot 100 at the same time. Still, it was one of many reasons why Batman, for all its campy overacting, stayed on the air as long as did. Hefti later composed the music for the 1968 Neil Simon comedy film classic The Odd Couple. He passed away at his home in Toluca Lake, California (in the San Fernando Valley) on October 11, 2008 at the age of 85.