| The 10 Essential Songs About
Superheroes |
By Brian Mansfield
CDNOW Senior Editor
"Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can!" The web-slinger's near
and dear to our hearts, but he's hardly the only comic-book character whose
exploits have been chronicled in song. Superman, Batman, Captain America,
Aquaman, and even Supergirl have all made the jump from pop culture to pop
song. Here's one top 10 list that's more powerful than a locomotive. And
while Superman could get a list of his own, we tried to adhere to a strict "one
song per hero" rule (though Clark Kent does make a cameo in "Captain America"
by Moe). 'Nuff said.
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| 1. "Spiderman" - The
Ramones |
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The Ramones, the closest thing punk rock ever had to cartoon superheroes,
recorded the theme from the '60s Spider-Man animated series for the 1995
collection Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest Hits, which also features
rocked-up TV themes from such crime fighters as Jonny Quest and Hong Kong
Phooey.
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| 2. "Superman
(It's Not Easy)" -- Five for Fighting |
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Dozens of acts, from Laurie Anderson to R.E.M. to 3 Doors Down, have used
Superman as the inspiration for songs. But John Ondrasik's 2001 hit for Five
for Fighting looks at the tender side of the Man of Steel. "I'm only a man in a
silly red sheet," Superman sings as he yearns for understanding from those he's
vowed to protect, "digging for kryptonite on this one-way street."
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| 3. "Magneto and
Titanium Man" -- Paul McCartney & Wings |
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What a former Beatle is doing hanging out with the X-Men's arch enemy and a
Communist super-villain that often battled Iron Man is never quite clear (maybe
he's been watching too many episodes of The Power-Puff Girls). Somehow,
though, they convince McCartney that his girlfriend is involved in the staging
of a robbery "that was due to happen at a quarter till three." Guess they were
going to be stealing Gary U.S. Bonds records.
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| 4. "Batdance"
-- Prince |
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Prince recorded an entire album's worth of tunes for director Tim Burton's 1989
Batman film. The six-minute dance mix that ends the disc incorporates
parts of the other songs, references to Neal Hefti's theme for the '60s TV
show, plus samples of film stars Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, and, best of
all, Jack Nicholson.
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| 5. "Ghost
Rider" -- Suicide |
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Art-punk duo Suicide released this ominously pulsating ode to Marvel Comics'
fiery, motorcycle-riding vengeance demon in 1977. Ghost Rider -- a.k.a. Johnny
Blaze -- dispensed justice by making evildoers experience the pain caused by
their sins. The villain here is an entire nation, and Suicide's hook --
"America is killing its youth" -- resonated with scores of young rockers,
including Henry Rollins and R.E.M., both of which have covered the song.
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| 6. "Captain
America" -- Moe |
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Northeastern jam band Moe gets funky on this tight little tune that features
turntable scratching, a cool electric-piano sound, and three-part harmonies.
First verse has Cap as an authoritarian figure; Clark Kent runs for president
in the second, but Moe seems to be having none of it -- "May be right / May be
wrong / I'm in the middle anyway," they sing.
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| 7. "Sgt. Rock
(Is Going to Help Me)" -- XTC |
Sgt. Rock was the most popular of the latter-day comic-book war heroes: a
rugged World War II soldier introduced in Our Army at War in 1959. In
this 1980 song, those wimpy rockers in XTC seek to enlist his help in their
romantic struggles: "If I could only be tough like him, then I could win my own
small battle of the sexes."
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| 8. "That's
Really Super, Supergirl" -- XTC |
Obviously, XTC's Andy Partridge is a DC Comics fan. This sarcastic ode to an
ex-girlfriend ("You're changing all the world's weather / But you couldn't put
us back together") came out in 1987 -- two years after DC killed off the
Supergirl character. (Another Partridge song -- "Brainiac's Daughter," from a
Dukes of the Stratosphear
side project -- also alluded to characters from the Superman universe.)
Partridge's devotion to DC paid off -- he got a cameo in a 1990 Legion of
Superheroes title.
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| 9. "The Mighty
Heroes" -- Sloppy Seconds |
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This killer punk-pop song takes its name from a Ralph Bakshi-created animated
superhero-team show that aired on CBS during the 1966-67 season. The Heroes --
which included such characters as Strong Man, Diaper Man, and Cuckoo Man --
aren't actually mentioned in the song (it's more about such cult action-movie
figures as Cleopatra Jones and Buford Pusser), though a clip from the show is
sampled at the beginning. Key line: "I learned the world ain't how it looks
when you learned it all from comic books."
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| 10. "One Week" -- Barenaked
Ladies |
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OK, so it's not really about superheroes, but, honestly, how could we
omit this ubiquitous 1998 smash, considering that it namechecks Aquaman, Sailor
Moon, and her "boom anime babes"?
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