I remember it well. High School, 1985, my senior year, listening to a variety of music, primarily hard rock/heavy metal when my wife (friend at the time and a good friend of hers) introduced me to a group called Oingo Boingo.
Oingo Boingo??? My initial thought was, “What kind of goofy crazy circus clown name is that for a band?” I really didn’t want to listen to their music but eventually, I gave in and was pleasantly surprised at the incredible musicianship of this band as I listened to what ultimately became one of my favorite songs, “Just Another Day!” They were incredible! They were very different! I didn’t realize how popular these guys were. In California, they were like the Beatles!
Years later, I was sitting in a movie theatre watching the movie, “Batman” when the credits showed that the scoring was done by none other than songwriter/composer (Oingo Boingo’s frontman) Danny Elfman!
Elfman would eventually score music for television and more movies! His main collaboration has been with Tim Burton and has scored all but two of his films (those being Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd).
His first major motion picture score was Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Elfman was so apprehensive at first because of his lack of formal training (he actually dropped out of high school), but with orchestration assistance from Oingo Boingo guitarist and arranger Steve Bartek (which today almost exclusively employs), he achieved his goal of creating his first musical score!
I had no idea his film scores included Edward Scissorhands, Good Will Hunting, Men in Black, Spider-Man, Big Fish, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Darkman, Alice in Wonderlnd and dozens more. Elfman also wrote the themes for more than a dozen TV series, including The Simpsons, Batman: The Animated Series, Tales from the Crypt and Desperate Housewives.
Wow! What talent!
Another interesting fact? He is married to actress Bridget Fonda and is related to actress Jenna Elfman.
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