Missed edit window: This is about messed-up song writing. (Not about the singers).
Holy distortions Batman!
For such a well known theme thanks to modern parodies, the very few lyrics in that theme song have been often distorted in two ways:
First; by making many, even the late Adam West, to think that trumpets were the ones imitating singers when the “Batman” part was sung. In fact there were real singers.
Then, as a Wikipedia talk commenter pointed out, many times one hears the other silly lyrics as “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na” he blamed a lot of that recent misconception on the Simpsons when Lisa mentioned those lyrics in one episode.
It is really more like:
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da!
Batmaaaaaan!
Fleetwood Mac, “Dreams”
“When the rain wa-SHES you clean you’ll know.”
Ugh.
Michael Jackson - in Billie Jean it sounds like the “chair” is not his son rather than the “child” is not his son.
Wow. It had never even occurred to me to think the “Batman” part was anything but sung. Never heard of this legend before this, either. Looking up the song on Youtube with this in mind, I can actually hear now someone might confuse that for brass.
As for the “na na na” part, I don’t get it. There’s no actual words there, so “na na na” or “da da da” or “ba ba ba” it doesn’t matter how people vocalize that part. It doesn’t sound more “da” than “na” or “ba” to me. I actually prefer “na” as its not quite as percussive as “da,” while still having a nice clipped sound to it.
I always thought the lyric was “the kid is not my son”
Me, too.
Just listened to it and looked up the lyrics. It is “kid.” I can’t get “child” or “chair” out of that line.