Danny Elfman + Prince = Batman 1989
What about it?
Danny Elfman was told at one point in the late 80s that he was to collaborate with Prince on the Batman theme and he ended up walking away.
The artist spoke more on the story in an interview with GQ Magazine
"I've never done anything harder than Batman because first off, I had to prove myself. You know, it's like, okay, he's the quirky comedy guy, and here I am doing like this Batman movie. Understandably, I think they were like, 'We need somebody who knows how to do this kind of music.' But nobody knew what kind of music it was. There really was no superhero music. There was just Superman. And we said we know we don't want it to be Superman, John Williams. And then there was an element with the producer in the studio of wanting it to be a pop score. There was definitely this moment of like, 'Danny, we want you to collaborate with Prince and co-write the score.' And I go, 'I can't do that. People, 'You really said that?' I love Prince, but not for that score. I already knew what the score was, and I knew that if I collaborated, he'd be writing tunes, and I'd be orchestrating his tunes, and I would be essentially a glorified arranger rather than a composer, you know, because he was world-famous, and I was still nothing. I had to walk away."
A month later Elfman was called back and things worked out for the better, and we ended up having the iconic theme we all know today.
