Upon its release in June of 1989, Batman had pop culture in a stranglehold and didn’t let up for most of the summer. Images of Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader and Jack Nicholson as the maniacal Joker and that undeniable symbol (I mean, who didn’t have a Batman shirt back then, right?) were all over the place, and accompanying it all, Prince’s “Batdance” ruled the airwaves. And yet, the album was mostly considered a critical failure for both the film and for Prince.

Twenty years later, in a strange turn of circumstance, it seems that time hasn’t been as kind to the film as it has to Prince’s music. After picking up and watching the new Blu-ray release of Batman, it occurred to me that not only did the film show its age when put up against the newer Batman films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but it also reminded me of just how much of a disconnect there was between the film itself and the music meant to support it.

I never quite understood why, of all musicians, Prince would be brought on to create a soundtrack for a Batman film. If you looked hard enough, I’m sure there’s some psuedo-sexual, psychological depths that Prince’s persona and music could explore in order to relate to the Batman universe, but that’s really stretching it all a bit much. As it turns out, it was the Warner Bros. corporate machine that forced the unusual union (including a crash six-week recording schedule) in hopes of adding another selling point to the film and landing another high-profile album for the legendary musician.

With that in mind, you could say that the album was only half a success. Heard in the context of the film, Prince’s music feels shoehorned in for the most part, used for nothing more than background atmosphere. Maybe it’s telling that the most popular song of the bunch, the uninspired and mechanical “Batdance”, samples heavily from the film’s dialog but isn’t featured at any point in the film itself. At the time, it seemed that people were more interested in the notion of “a Batman song” that could play well on the dance floor than all those other songs that actually arrived on the soundtrack.

On its own, however, the Batman soundtrack added some versatility to Prince’s act, proving that he could successfully work outside of his own creative confines. Of the remaining tracks, most seem to have gotten better with time, especially when listened to outside of the cultural whirlwind that surrounded Batman in 1989. Tracks like “The Future”, “Lemon Crush” and “Trust” are just as driving and unrelenting as they were twenty years ago and the heavy rhythms of the infectious rock-funk hybrids “Partyman”, “Electic Chair” and “Vicki Waiting” still get a body moving. And let’s not forget the additional tracks that made their way into Prince’s The Hits/The B-Sides collection, including “200 Balloons”, “Feel U Up” and “I Love U in Me”  as solid-albeit-overlooked tunes that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. The fact that most of the songs work on their own (the only song to reference the film being “Vicki Waiting”) speaks to Prince’s ability to take what must have been a short order and still inject a level of creativity and personality into the album that outshines even contemporary pop music.

For better or worse, Batman served as an example of how to not build a soundtrack.  The sequels Batman Forever and Batman and Robin managed to secure original songs from a wide range of artists including Seal, U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, Underworld, R. Kelly and Brandy (and depending on your tastes, that might not a good thing). Outside of the Batman franchise, just about every movie soundtrack since then has either been a compilation of licensed music, original songs or some combination of the two, but never again would it be up to a single artist to create an entire soundtrack album for such a high-profile film. For Prince fans, on the other hand, it was the perfect example of just how enduring his music can be, even when overshadowed by a larger phenomenon like Batman.