Album Review:

Released one month prior to Jan Berry's near-fatal car crash, Meet Batman was intended to be both a homage to the eponymous T.V. series, which launched January 12, 1966 and an exercise in the duo's love of comedy. Originally, the spoken-word sections had the pair taking on the roles of Batman and Robin, but due to legal reasons, they had to rerecord them as Captain Jan and Dean the Boy Blunder, who drive around Surf City in an atom-powered woody wagon. Berry and George Tipton do a superb job of reinterpreting the musical influences of Neal Helfti's iconic series score and interjecting them into the duo's style. 

​

'Batman' is not the familiar theme song but a new composition by Berry, Atfeild, and Weider. 'Origin of Captain Jan & Boy Blunder' details how the Little Old Lady from Pasadena gives Jan and Dean their new superhero identities.'Robin the Boy Wonder' is a middling song much akin to 'Schlock Rod Parts I & II' from Drag City. 'Mr. Freeze' is a rocking instrumental with copious amounts of brass punches. 'Batman Theme' is a solid cover of the tune and reached #66 on the Billboard 100 (no doubt obscured by the massive amount of cover versions of the tune from the era. 'The Joker is Wild'runs through a bevy of modulations and once again proves why Jan and Dean received the moniker "Clown Princes of Rock and Roll."'Flight of the Batmobile' may be the funniest thing the duo ever laid to tape, and it is quite a good car song in its own right. The Mrs. Percy fiasco never fails to bring a smile, and what on earth are the lyrics of the second verse?

​

Jan and Dean's quality output between 1965 and 1966 was sporadic, to say the least. Meet Batman is somehow one high point of the era. ​Of course, there are sections of this eclectic collection of skits and music that haven't aged as well; the whole Vi-Ta-Min A Day plotline is unfortunately riddled with insensitive caricatures of Chinese people. There are plenty of in-jokes to go around including friendly jabs at the Beach Boys, who apparently couldn’t save the day because “they don’t know anything!” What is perhaps most interesting is how the duo immerses the listener in this wacky world they've created, culminating characters and locations from singles released throughout their career to create a kind of alternate Jan and Dean universe where Little Old Ladies drive superstock dodges up and down Surf City, frequent songwriting partners get shout outs (Don Atfeld, Fred Weider), and the pair's humor is on full display throughout. It's almost bittersweet that this would be their final album together. ​