Batman: Original Motion Picture Score is the score album for the 1989 film Batman, composed by Danny Elfman. According to the BatmanDVD Special Edition, Elfman said that producer Jon Peters was not sure about him as a composer until director Tim Burton made him play the main titles. Elfman admitted he was stunned when Peters announced that the score would be released on its own album. The score was widely acclaimed by the press and in many contemporary reviews is cited as the highlight of the film.
Burton hired Elfman to compose the music score for Batman. For inspiration, Elfman was given The Dark Knight Returns. Elfman was worried, as he had never worked on a production this large in budget and scale.[1] In an interview with Keyboard in October 1989, Elfman said that he never read Batman as a child, preferring Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.[2] In addition, producer Jon Peters was skeptical of hiring Elfman, but was later convinced when he heard the opening number.[3] Peters and Peter Guber wanted Prince to write music for the Joker and Michael Jackson to do the romance songs. Elfman would then combine the style of Prince and Jackson's songs together for the entire film score.[4] Elfman worked separately from Prince, who was responsible for writing songs for the film. Prince proposed to extend his songs into the score, and the producers asked Elfman to collaborate with Prince on the score. Elfman refused because he was already working on the score, and did not want to serve as mere music arranger under Prince.[5]
Elfman enlisted the help of Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek and Shirley Walker to arrange the compositions for the orchestra.[6] Elfman was later displeased with the audio mixing of his film score. According to Elfman: "Batman was done in England by technicians who didn't care, and the non-caring showed. I'm not putting down England because they've done gorgeous dubs there, but this particular crew elected not to".[7] Despite it, Elfman included several synthesizer cues in the film, mostly percussion samples.[2] Elfman based his five-note Batman motif on his viewing experience on the rough cut of the film.[2]
In rearranging Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer", Elfman added a "lovely climax" as the Joker twirls away. Elfman also recorded the composition twice, primarily on the violin.[2] Meanwhile, in recording "Up the Cathedral", Elfman did not use a real church organ, but an electronic organ by Rodgers Instruments. Elfman cites his inspiration for "Up the Cathedral" to Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1961 film Mysterious Island, a film he enjoyed as a child.[2] Elfman completed his score in May 1989, just over a month before the film's release.[2]
