
Elfman purposefully nodded towards Herrmann's The Day the Earth Stood Still score in Tim Burton's sci-fi spoof Mars Attacks! The music was by Bernard Herrmann, and that, he has said, was where his love of film music began (Russell and Young, 2000). He recalls that the first time he became aware of film music was in his youth during a screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951). We're very lucky to connect" (Breskin, 1997). We don't even have to intellectualize – which is good for both of us, we're both similar that way. He also, more recently, accompanied Tim Burton in the composition of music for "Almost Alice", the soundtrack for "Alice in Wonderland."īurton has said of his relationship with Elfman: "We don't even have to talk about the music. Elfman immediately developed a rapport with Burton and has gone on to score all but two of Burton's major studio releases: Ed Wood, scored by Howard Shore, which was under production while Elfman and Burton were having a fight, and Sweeney Todd, an adaptation of the 1979 Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical.
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In the booklet for the first volume of Music for a Darkened Theatre, Elfman described the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra as one of the most thrilling experiences of his life. Elfman was apprehensive at first because of his lack of formal training, but with orchestration assistance from Oingo Boingo guitarist and arranger Steve Bartek, he achieved his goal of emulating the mood of such composers as Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann. In 1985, Tim Burton and Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
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By the time the movie was completed, they had taken the name Oingo Boingo and begun recording and touring as a rock group. Danny Elfman composed his first score for the film and played the role of Satan. The group performed the music for Richard's debut feature film, Forbidden Zone. At this time, his brother was forming a new musical theater group, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Play.' I continued to sit and play for a couple years". Elfman stated, "He just laughed, and said, 'Sit. He was never officially a student at the institute, nonetheless, the instructor encouraged him to continue learning. Eventually he returned home to the United States, where he began to take Balinese music lessons at the CalArts. Elfman contracted malaria during his one-year stay and was often sick.


Violin in tow, Elfman next journeyed to Africa where he traveled through Ghana, Mali, and Upper Volta, absorbing new musical styles, including the Ghanaian highlife genre which would eventually influence his own music. After dropping out of high school, he followed his brother Richard to France, where he performed with Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group. Stating that he hung out with the "band nerds" in high school, he started a ska band. He spent much of his time in the local movie theatre, adoring the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. Elfman grew up in a racially mixed community in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles. He is the uncle in-law to actress Jenna Elfman.Įlfman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher who was in the Air Force. He also sang for the character Bone Jangles in the movie Corpse Bride. Elfman is famous for creating The Simpsons main title theme, and his role as Jack Skellington's singing voice in The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and won a Grammy Award for Tim Burton's Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. He is a frequent collaborator with long-time friend Tim Burton and has scored all of his films (with the exception of Cabin Boy, James and the Giant Peach, Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd).

Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American musician, best known for composing music for television and movies and leading the rock band Oingo Boingo as singer/songwriter from 1976 until its breakup in 1995.
