All dialogue sampled on Prince's Batman album is taken directly from a workprint of Batman and therefore lacks ADR and foley. ' Batdance' includes a sample of Prince's technician Matthew Larson, and ' Partyman' features the vocal performance of then girlfriend Anna Garcia (credited as Anna Fantastic). The album was performed entirely by Prince, with a few exceptions: Sheena Easton duets with Prince on ' The Arms of Orion', 'Trust' features a sampled horn part by Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss, and ' The Future' features strings by Clare Fischer sampled from the then unreleased 1986 track 'Crystal Ball' and samples of the Sounds of Blackness choir. This never came to fruition as Jackson was busy with his Bad World Tour and already signed with Epic Records (the label he had been with since 1975), while the film was a Warner Bros.

In a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, Prince revealed that the project was initially supposed to be a collaboration between himself and Michael Jackson: 'Did you know that the album was supposed to be a duet between Michael Jackson and me? He as Batman, me as the Joker?' Prince would have sung funk songs for the villains, while Michael Jackson would have sung ballads for the heroes. Originally, the songs ' 1999' and ' Baby I'm a Star' from earlier albums were slated to be used in the film, but Prince instead recorded an entire album's worth of material with Batman samples and lyrics. The album was recorded in six weeks, from mid February to late March 1989, and Prince used three tracks recorded earlier: 'Electric Chair', ' Scandalous!', and 'Vicki Waiting' (originally known as 'Anna Waiting', named for his then girlfriend Anna Fantastic).

It is certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album stayed at number one on the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks, being his first number one album since Around the World in a Day, while its lead single, 'Batdance', became his first number one song since ' Kiss'. The result was yet another multi platinum successful cross media enterprise by Warner Bros., in the vein of Purple Rain.

stablemate, Prince's involvement in the soundtrack was designed to leverage the media company's contract bound talent as well as fulfill the artist's need for a commercial revival. It was released on June 20, 1989, by Warner Bros. Batman is the eleventh studio album by American recording artist Prince and the soundtrack album to the 1989 film Batman.

Batman by Sean Murphy