In the mid 1960s, when the Batman TV show was in full swing, a New Jersey toy company released a children’s record of Batman & Robin songs. Called The Sensational Guitars Of Dan & Dale, Batman & Robin, the album featured, as WFMU’s Beware of the Blog notes, “one of the greatest uncredited session combos of all time, including the core of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and Al Kooper’s Blues Project.” Anonymously, Sun Ra played on organ, Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Tom McIntosh on trombone & Danny Kalb on guitar.
Other than the well-known Batman and Robin themes (above), the kid’s album was created around music that had fallen into the public domain–e.g. Chopin’s Polonaise Op. 53, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and the love theme from Romeo and Juliet. Over at WFMU, you can hear various tracks, including Batman’s Batmarang, Batman and Robin Over The Roofs, Flight of the Batman, The Riddler’s Retreat, Joker is Wild, Penguin’s Umbrella, and more. Enjoy.
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Hear Sun Ra’s 1971 UC Berkeley Lecture “The Power of Words”
A Sun Ra Christmas: Hear His 1976 Radio Broadcast of Poetry and Music
The Evolution of Batman in Cinema: From 1939 to Present
nice