"Partyman" is a song by American musician Prince from his 1989 Batman album, and the follow-up to his number one hit, "Batdance".[1] The song is one of the few on the album to be prominently featured in the film, accompanying the scene in which the Joker and his minions deface exhibits in the Gotham City Art Museum before meeting Vicki Vale.
The song was inspired by Prince's meeting with Jack Nicholson on-set during the filming of Batman.[2] Prince remarked in a 1990 interview, "[Nicholson] had this attitude that reminded me of Morris [Day] — and there was that song."
The upbeat and humorous number features horn samples and Prince's sped-up "Camille" vocals, as well as a vocal performance by Anna Fantastic. The 12" single extends the song to about six minutes in length (labeled as the "Video Mix"), and features the B-side "Feel U Up", a previously unreleased Camille track which would later be available on The Hits/The B-Sides (1993) compilation. "Feel U Up" was originally cut in 1981, but re-recorded in 1986 for the Camille album.
The 12" single also included a "Purple Party Mix", which starts with a string of samples from Prince's earlier hits and contains different lyrics. A track identified as a "music mix" is an instrumental of the "Purple Party Mix". The bassline shares great similarities to "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing" by James Brown (Prince himself, unsurprisingly, was heavily influenced by Brown). The song's chant "young and old, gather round; everybody hail the new king in town" follows the same rhythm from the 1986 outtake "Rebirth of the Flesh".
The song's accompanying music video, filmed in Culver City, California in August 1989[3] and directed by Albert Magnoli,[4] again presents Prince's "Gemini" alter ego dressed in a "half-Joker" costume. The video features Dutch musician Candy Dulfer on saxophone. Due to licensing problems, "Partyman", like all of the Batman-era hits, has failed to appear on any Prince compilation album with the exception of the UK singles promoting The Hits/The B-Sides. The song's streams increased when it was featured in an episode of the 2020 documentary series The Last Dance.
