When people think of the best movie soundtracks from the mid-nineties, I wonder how many of them shine a light on the collection of songs for Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. It’s a given that people remember tracks like U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” and Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose,” but it would be criminal to forget songs like Mazzy Star’s “Tell Me Now,” Massive Attack and Tracy Thorn’s “The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game.” Nick Cave’s “There Is a Light,” Sunny Day Real Estate’s “8,” PJ Harvey’s “One Time Too Many,” “Bad Days” by The Flaming Lips, and more. While the Batman Forever soundtrack plays on a loop inside my head forever, the soundtrack for Schumacher’s other Batman film, Batman & Robin, doesn’t ring as many bells. During a recent interview spot on And the Writer Is, Corgan explained how the Smashing Pumpkins track “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” was a total disaster before resonating with fans years later.
Corgan on his Batman song, finding its audience with Watchmen
“I wrote a song for the movie Batman Forever (it’s actually Batman & Robin, Billy). It was a disaster, okay? The song comes out on the soundtrack, but nobody cared. No fans said they loved the song, nothing, okay? Fast-forward 15, maybe 20 years, and it becomes the song for the Watchmen trailer, when it was the Watchmen movie. I’m getting chills telling you this story,” Corgan said. “People sing that song connected with those visuals. It went from a nothing, nobody gave a shit, to an instant classic. So that’s what I’m saying, it’s not up to us to assess value. You have to trust your artistic voice enough to say, if I’m going to put it out in the world, I have to believe at least that at some point it’s going to find its place.”
One of These Soundtracks Is Not Like the Other
As someone who checked out on The Smashing Pumpkins after the release of the band’s 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, I can’t say I remember “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” being a significant hint. Plus, the only standout tracks I see on the Batman & Robin soundtrack are “Poison Ivy” by Meshell Ndegeocello, “Foolish Games” by Jewel, and “The Bug” by Soul Coughing. That’s just me, though. Music, like comedy, is subjective, so you’re welcome to disagree. Regardless of my opinion, it’s cool to think that Corgan’s overlooked Batman & Robin song found a second life thanks to the trailer for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. Most of the time, all you can do is pour your heart and soul into something and hope it finds the right audience.
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