Best (live-action) Bat soundtrack

[The Penguin]

Which Batman movie had the best motion picture soundtrack?

Now here we are talking the albums where the song were done by different artists (typically with words) not the original score (if we went with score, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin would tie because they used EXACTLY the same one--watch them both you'll see what I mean).

Quick run-down

Batman- All the songs were done by Prince
Batman Returns- Only had one song and I can't remember the name of it
Batman Forever- Best known songs were Seal "Kiss From a Rose" and U2 "Hold Me Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
Batman & Robin- featured two song by The Smashing Pumpkins that were quite similiar and R. Kelly's "Gotham City"

[James Harvey]

It's really hard to say becuase the soundtrack for these movies wasn't all that impressive really. The best on would have to be the Batman Forveer soundtrack becuase of the great U2 song, but also the very awesome Flaming Lips tune as well.

[Bird Boy]

ah crap..I voted before I read the post..

I voted "batman"....cuz I thought it was the instrumental version. The instrumental one sucked...But, if I could re-vote again...I would vote Batman Forever...

-BB

[DR.MID-NITE]

I voted for Batman. But, it is FOR the instrumental version by Danny Elfman. His soundtrack was great. The Prince soundtrack was ok.

[The Game]

I voted for the Batman and Robin soundtrack- it has alot of good songs and narrowly beats out Batman Forever

[Karkull]

Definately the Batman Returns soundtrack. The instrumentals were darker and had more bells (a classic Burton/Elfman feature) and had that killer Siouxsie and the Banshees song "Face to Face" (the perfect Batman/Catwoman song).

[Heehaw]

Returns for instrumental, B&R for pop music. That one had the awesome Goo Goo Dolls and Smashing Pumpkins songs. Forever had the U2, though which was great. There were also a handful of songs on there that I liked by lesser artists.

BTW, there is also a full instrumental soundtrack for B&R, but it was never released. It was only given out as a store promo and you might be able to find one occasionally on an auction, though 9.99999 times out of 10 it is a CDR copy. It's actually a decent score and the inclusion of the movie versions(meaning as they were edited in the film) of the pop songs was a nice touch.

[The New Batman]

I voted for Batman Returns. I really like Danny Elfman's instrumentals. I also like his work on the original Batman soundtrack. I don't care much for the other songs though, just the instrumentals. I really hated the Batman Forever and Batman and Robin soundtracks. Other than the "Kissed by a Rose" song, the Batman Forever soundtrack was horrible. There was nothing good about the Batman and Robin soundtrack.

The first 2 Batman movies had great scores, the second two didn't.

[Barb Gordon]

I voted for Batman Forever, it's one of my favs, mostly for the Seal song. i regretfully do not own the first two movie soundtracks *sobs*...lol, yet another thing I can go buy!

Barb^-^

*goes and pops in her Batman Forever soundtrack*

[optimal321]

Well, i've only heard the first movie's soundtrack, and the last. I don't like Prince, so Batman wasn't that great. And the songs for B&R were just about as bad as the movie itself. R Kelly w/ a choir of children singing "City of justice, WHOO!, city of love" to represent Gotham City.

But of the songs i have heard from the Batman Forever soundtrack, i'd rate that at the top.

[The Mad Hatter]

Hm. Well, if I can't take the Danny Elfman score from Batman, then I'll have to go with Batman Forever. I'm a big U2 nut, and Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me is still one of my favorites from them. Also, Kiss From A Rose was better than I was expecting.

While I'm at it... anyone else think that R. Kelly's Gotham City (from B&R) is one of the most awful and evil songs ever released?

[James Harvey]

The R. Kelly song is a joke - mainly becuase in the songhe sings about New York, not the Gotham City we know and love. The Smashing Pumpkins songs were the only good things about that DVD.

[mgibson72]

Ack! Am I the ONLY old guy here that remembers when the original Prince album came out?!? That Batman album rocked! *sigh* Ah, well...

;)

Batman Returns is definitely the best instrumental, though...!

[Cosmocat]

If were talking song compilation soundtracks, then Batman Forever was the best. That CD has a surprising number of good songs on it.

Score-wise, I'm going out on a limb and say Batman Returns. Batman's was very good, but was a bit more "catchy" and simple thematically. Batman Returns' score was more complex, rich, darker, and more like a tragic opera.