Article by Eric Lee
Everyone knows that music legend Prince produced a whole soundtrack for the 1989 Batman movie. Surprisingly, it seems that the project also saved the musician from financial ruin.
Partyman
In an interview with Variety, Prince’s one-time manager and Purple Rain music video director Albert Magnoli revealed how the music icon desperately needed money. Initially after the success of Purple Rain, Prince directed a sequel that flopped hard. Even after that, Prince’s then-managers continued spending his money frivolously on venues and investing in future projects. Unfortunately, that left Prince losing a lot more money than he was making on his music tours. So Prince hired Magnoli to handle his finances. The first thing Magnoli did was straighten out Prince’s money management. The next objective was to find a project to produce revenue. Here is how Magnoli recounts finding the Batman album.
The Batman album came into being when I was contacted by [Batman producer] Mark Canton, and I went to Prince and said, ‘This will help us bring revenue into the system without having to expose you to another album.
Trust
Interestingly, Magnoli and Batman producers initially teased the idea of Prince writing the film score, but -as he had no experience writing movie scores – Magnoli came up with an elegant solution. He encouraged the producers to let composer Danny Elfman compose the score, while Prince produced pop music that could be inserted into the film at director Tim Burton’s discretion. Furthermore, Warner Bros. could then release a separate album of music “inspired by the film”.
Batdance
The making of the Batman album was almost as intriguing as the movie it was based on. To inspire Prince to write the music, Warner Bros. showed him a rough cut of the film. Prince was surprised to find that the film already contained some of his songs as placeholders, like 1999. Instead, Prince decided to create new songs for the film to use.
Tracks like Partyman, Trust, The Future, and Electric Chair can be heard in the movie. However, the most well-known song is not in the movie at all: Batdance. The track is an almost-seven minute dance mix with loud beats and film sound clips. The record executives complained it was too long and weird, but Magnoli was convinced that it could be the album’s selling point. In the end, it turned into one of the project’s biggest successes.
The track Partyman also had an interesting hurdle. MTV refused to play the edgy music video, as it depicted an over-sexualized female and mass suicide. Magnoli had to cut the more controversial elements. Since then, the original version has been played.
The Future
Overall, the gambit paid off for Prince. Both the Batman movie and the album were smashing successes. This helped save Prince from going into bankruptcy and opened up new revenues for him and future artists. Here is Magnoli on the album’s financial success.
The revenue from Batman and severe cost cutting – we went from a $10 million per year nut to $2 million – allowed him to continue on without concern and without changing his lifestyle.
The album was more than just a hit. It went multi-platinum. Inserting Prince’s music into a blockbuster movie exposed many filmgoers to his music for the first time. Additionally, the success inspired a trend of movies releasing secondary “inspired by” album- a practice that still occurs today.
For more about the musical journey and the technical creation of the Batman album, click here.
