When jazzman met the Batman

I can't have been the only jazz fan who read with astonishment a quotation that appeared in several obituaries of Neal Hefti, who died on October 11, concerning his theme for the Batman TV series.

'I just sweated over that thing, more so than any other single piece of music I ever wrote,' he reportedly said. 'I was never satisfied with it.'

This is a striking musical example of the axiom that very simple things are often harder to do than more complex ones. As Pete Seeger once remarked of Woody Guthrie: 'It takes genius to be simple. Any damn fool can get complicated.'

Hefti was a composer and arranger of immense skill and sophistication. The jazz world will best remember him for his work with Woody Herman's First Herd, and the classic compositions and arrangements for the Count Basie Orchestra on The Atomic Mr Basie, including one of jazz's most enduringly popular ballads, Lil' Darlin'.

Another of the many themes he wrote for film and television, The Odd Couple, has also found its way into many a jazz ensemble's band book, although it is rock artists who have mostly been drawn to the bluesy, riff-based, Caped Crusader anthem. The best-known covers are probably those by The Ventures, The Who and The Jam, although there are dozens more. From the jazz world Sun Ra and John Zorn have also essayed it.

Judged by the number of covers it has generated, Batman must be considered a very successful composition indeed, but I still find it as difficult to imagine Hefti actually sweating over it as I would Henry Mancini having a hard time with the riff for Peter Gunn.