I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" was a hit single in 1967 composed by British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. It was a novelty record, performed mostly by whistling. The name Whistling Jack Smith, credited on the most commercially successful recording, was a play on the name of the baritone singer of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Whispering Jack Smith. The tune was written by Greenaway and Cook and was originally titled "Too Much Birdseed". It was recorded as a single for Deram Records by record producer Noel Walker, using studio musicians together with the
SMS Kaiser (1911) . A week later, on 24 June, the Detached Division was dissolved and "Kaiser" returned to the III Squadron. "Kaiser" then participated in squadron exercises in July. "Kaiser" joined the High Seas Fleet for its annual summer cruise to Norway in July 1914, about two weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. As a result of rising international tensions, the cruise was cut short and the German fleet was back in Wilhelmshaven by 29 July. At midnight on 4 August, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The High Seas Fleet, including "Kaiser", conducted a number of