13 Biggest Mistakes The Batman Movies Ever Made

Now, let there be no misunderstanding here: Prince's Batman soundtrack is fun. As Shaun of the Dead memorably told us, it's not on a par with Purple Rain or Sign O' The Times, but anyone who was a kid in the late 1980s/early 1990s almost certainly got their groove on to Batdance and Party Man at a school disco or two.

Even so - in what universe is it an appropriate soundtrack to Tim Burton's Batman? With its gloomy colour scheme, Gothic designs and film noir overtones, the 1989 movie was a concerted effort to disassociate Batman from the high camp of the 1960s TV series, and it was largely successful in this.

Setting that against the funky, upbeat sounds of Prince is like squeezing a square peg into a round hole. The two just don't match up, and it all just smacks of commerce being placed ahead of creativity: Prince was the biggest artist Warner Bros Records had at the time, so it made business sense to tie him in with a movie property they had such high hopes for, even if the music didn't suit the film at all.

Still, while Prince's music was an odd fit, at least Danny Elfman's orchestral score wasn't. To this day, his Batman theme is one of the most striking, memorable pieces of film music ever.

And they picked an artist more in-keeping with Burton's sensibilities for Batman Returns, with Siouxsie and the Banshees performing the Gothic ballad Face To Face (co-written by Elfman).