Sing Along With Batman! (Not Really)

Inside the front cover of Choice Comics #2 (1942), we're given an unprecedented opportunity:

Now, if you know me at all, you know damn well I cannot resist a suggestion from a monkey in a suit and hat speaking with a Brooklyn accent.

So let's go check out this song:

Well...OK. I guess. I mean, I'm not seeing any Grammys for this baby.

Oh, wait, there's more lyrics?

The "only animal that flies"?!?!? Oh, come now. Surely you mean "mammal," but that is only two syllables. So, in the name of meter for a song that sucks anyway, you're going to miseducate the youth of America? I shall never trust a monkey in a suit again!!

Wait...

I like the presumption that at least one person in every family could sight-read music. Oh, those golden years...

So what the hell was the deal here? Why the repeated emphasis on sharing this doggerel with your parents?

Well, with precisely zero research, I'm going to hazard that Great Comics (the comic publisher) & Lawrence Publishing (cited as the copyright holder for the song) were the same outfit, or owned by the same company, and this was an early guerrilla marketing campaign to create a hit song. Kids across America get parents to read and sing The Bat, then they release a hit record by some crooner to take advantage of the insane demand, and voila: millions of dollars!!

Or, maybe it was just a silly space-filling feature...

Here's the full page of sing-a-long joy: