Mitch4 sends this in as a momentary CIDU: “Does his exclamation of “Nana! Nana! Nana! …” convey anything besides greeting his grandmother? Maybe. Somehow the musical theme from the 1960s TV series of Batman has developed a conventionalized way of humming/singing it, and of writing that, using the syllables “Nanananana..””
This is definitely not what’s being alluded to by Whamond, but this reminds me of a baseball chant. Here’s longtime White Sox organist Nancy Faust with “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Good-bye”, sung by the stadium crowd to taunt an opposing pitcher as they are being yanked from the game.
And the original:
This might be a location-dependent error, but for the first video, YouTube reports “Video unavailable… it was blocked due to the claimed content by SME.“
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The music of the Batman theme and the rock/sports riff have absolutely nothing in common, yet I’m sure that’s the connection that Coverly had in mind.
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What they have in common is the repetition of the syllable “na.” As XKCD pointed out many years ago, you can also add “Hey Jude” and “Land of 1,000 Dances” to that list.
https://xkcd.com/851/
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I always enjoyed The Nylons’ cover of Kiss Him Goodbye – https://youtu.be/V5oPtw4yWu8?si=zBIB7MfgWGP8bko3
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The TV Batman theme is also somewhat famous for the “harmony” of the chorus, which uses the tritone interval.
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Atanwat: from here in Chicago, I’m not having a problem with the video. Not sure where you are, but location-dependent is a good guess.
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@DemetriosX
Add 4 more “na”s to that comic and XKCD could have added the bridge in the J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” too.
Coincidentally (or perhaps not?) The J. Geils Band would release a cover of “Land of 1,000 Dances” on Showtime! their live album follow up to Freeze Frame. The song closes the album out, following the live version of “Centerfold”, naturally. And prior to Centerfold on the record is a cover of the Marvelowe’s “I Do”, a song whose lyrics consist almost entirely of, not “na”, but “doo”.
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This has absolutely nothing to do with ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’, and is absolutely a reference to the -‘Batman’ TV theme.
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I just noticed that the cartoonist’s name is wrong: It’s Dave Whamond, not Dave Coverly.
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SOCK!
POW!
ZOK!
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Neal Hefti was a great trumpet player, arranger and composer. He played in Woody Herman’s band and wrote songs and arrangements. His arrangement of “Caldonia” with the four trumpets in unison impressed Igor Stravinsky and inspired Stravinsky to write the Ebony Concerto for Woody Herman.
Also, Neal Hefti wrote the Batman theme.
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SOCK!
BIFF!
ZAP!
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Ah, TV the 1960s. Classic.
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Batman.
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@Lost in A**2: Corrected. Thanks!
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In 1965, I was four, and my whole family watched Batman one evening. In the episode, Batman is captured and strapped to a gurney in the back of an ambulance. As the bad guys drive him up a mountain road to their lair, he manages to kick the door open. The gurney slides out, the legs come down (and lock?!), and he’s rolling down the mountain road, trying to steer by pitching his body.
At 2AM that morning my mother awoke with stabbing abdominal pain (turned out to be diverticulitis), and my dad called an ambulance. As they were loading her in, she apparently kept telling them to be sure the door was latched. The driver had seen the episode and told her not to worry!
So the show has always had a place in family lore.
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