Written by: Larry J. Hall
The story starts when Matt McGinnis showed copies of Batman performing on his birthday. Or course, word got around & Gotham City knew about the dark knight's hidden talent.
School's out & we find Matt & his friends hanging around. Their their mouths opened when Batman arrived on his Bat Hover-Cycle. Batman pointed to Matt & had him hop on & then drove him somewhere.
When he parked, he turned to him saying, "How could you do this to me? You made me a laughingstock! I should've never performed on your birthday @ all."
"I thought it was cool." said Matt, "Other kids thought you were awesome & some of my teachers liked the message in that song."
"Batman's not meant to be a rock star, he's a crimefighter." said Batman, "I'm going to tell your mother to ground you for what you did. You had no authorization to show that @ all!"
Just then, a hover car was being chased by The Jokerz Gang. Batman joined the chase to try to catch them. The Jokerz got off their hover cycles & started battling Batman. But Batman started fighting the gang & defeating them one by one with Matt watching.
When The Jokerz left, a woman got out of her hover car & went over to Batman.
"Thanks for saving me." she hands him her business card, "I'm Rachel M., owner of GC Discs. My kid saw your musical performance & you should record that song. How about cutting a demo single?"
"And make a fool of myself." snapped Batman.
"Kids like him would go for that stuff." she said, "A super hero doing a drug-free tune. I'll hire a band, you just bring your solar guitar with you."
"You probably won't hear from me." said Batman.
After dropping Matt home, Terry McGinnis was @ Bruce's mansion. Terry's relaxing still in his Batman costume. Bruce saw that he's in a very bad mood.
"Are you still mad about that musical performance you did?" he asked.
"My little brother had no right showing it to his friends & all over Gotham City." snapped Terry, "Batman's not meant to play music, whether it's uplifting or love songs."
"I felt that way back in 1976." said Bruce.
"Not another time-travel wacky adventure." groaned Terry.
"Not yet." said Bruce. Then he explained to Terry,
"I was in the Justice League of America just like you were on one episode. Anyway, back in 1976, we decided to put on a telethon to raise money for our favorite charities & honor our country's bicentennial.
We would use our super powers to perform. Green Arrow had an archery exhibition, Superman got to be a one man football team going against a pro team. The Flash got to race over America & I got stuck playing the guitar."
"You played the guitar? Weird!" said Terry.
"Let me finish the story." snapped Bruce, "Supes hired a band for the telethon, but their guitarist was sick to his stomach. So Supes assigned me to play the guitar since I liked jazz music. I played in the band for 10 hours. Terry, wear your street clothes, you're going back to 1976."
So Terry took off the Batman outfit & had his street clothes on. Bruce told him it's going to be another 2 hour visit before coming back to his present. Bruce set the time machine to 1976.
Terry stepped in & was transported to 1976 @ the studio where The JLA Telethon's being held. When he arrived, he found Black Canary singing a cool tune with Batman accomapning on the electric guitar. Then Terry was shocked that Batman got to sing solo as well.
After their performance, Black Canary went over to Batman thanking him. But he's in a real bad mood.
"You were great, Batman!" said Black Canary, "You got a fine talent & voice."
"I'll never live it down." groaned Batman, "I could've taken pledges from the phone deck, but Supes talked me into playing the guitar with the band."
Batman spots Terry & says,
"You want my autograph? You think it's lame for Batman to do that?"
"Cool guitar playing, took some courage." said Terry, "If I was ever Batman, I wouldn't mind doing that."
"In about 40 years or so." he quipped.
Then Superman came over to him & said, "You're doing a great job. That musician thanks you for filling in for him. How would you like to solo?"
Just when Terry's about to leave, he saw Batman playing in the band. First he picked up some mallets & played a cool solo on the vibes. Then he dropped the mallets & picked up the electric guitar & played a cool solo. When he finished, Terry was back in his present day in the Bat-Cave.
"Bruce," Terry said, "I guess I was too hard on my brother. If you could have the courage to play music as Batman, so could I."
A couple of days later, Matt saw Batman again. he apologized to him for being a little rough. Then he took him to GC Discs to cut that demo. With a band backing him up, Batman played a his solar electric guitar & sang. The disc was released to the public & part of the sales went to the Wayne Foundation.