No doubt some of you are sitting bleary and bloodshot from seeing an overnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, and I am jealous of you. I didn't think to buy tickets early so now I will have to wait until like, next week to see it. First World Problems, dude.

The ending of the Christopher Nolan trilogy of Batman films is the close of a great chapter in cinema history, where the Dark Knight wasn't a campy, nipply, colorful himbo, that was more or less a tool to sell toys. he was a brooding crime-fighter that was multi-layered.

OK, the Burton flicks ruled. As for the last two Batman movies in the '90s... well, at least the music was fun?

When the new Nolan movies were announced and we could see the tone of the films shaping up, it was obvious that there would be no room for pop-studded soundtrack tie-ins, and that's a good thing.

Christian Bale's Batman is exactly suited for hip-hop or rock music... but imagine if Trent Reznor were involved. Something to look for when the character gets rebooted again.

Anyhow, since we're all in the Batman mood, here are some of the highlights from nine years of Batman movie history. I still say the the Batman Forever soundtrack was the best soundtrack to come from 1995 that wasn't Trainspotting.

U2, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", Batman Forever

This song would foretell the band's future Pop material, even though it was refuse from the Achtung/Zooropa era.

Seal, "Kiss From a Rose," Batman Forever

What did this have to do with Batman, and why do I hear this at least once a night when I go on a karaoke crawl?

R. Kelly, "Gotham City," Batman & Robin

Oh, R. Kelly, you made it onto not one, but two soundtracks that white kids bought in less than a year. Remember the Space Jam soundtrack? When you told us that we should we believe we can fly? Or was it just you that could fly?