Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA) is an A… Read Full Bio ↴Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA) is an American composer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Oingo Boingo, from 1976 to 1995 and later for scoring music for television and film and creating The Simpsons main title theme as well as the 1989 Batman movie theme. He has scored the majority of the films for his long-time friend Tim Burton.

Born in Los Angeles, he entered the film industry in 1976, initially as an actor. He made his film scoring debut in 1980 for the film Forbidden Zone directed by his older brother Richard Elfman. He has since been nominated for four Academy Awards and won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Tim Burton's Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. Elfman was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 2002 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.

He is the son of novelist Blossom Elfman and the brother of director Richard Elfman.

Elfman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a community in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles. He spent much of his time in the local movie theatre, adoring the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman.

Stating that he hung out with the "band nerds" in high school, he started a ska band. 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. 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. Elfman contracted malaria during his one-year stay and was often sick. Eventually he returned home to the United States, where he began to take Balinese music lessons at the CalArts. He was never officially a student at the institute, nonetheless, the instructor encouraged him to continue learning. Elfman stated, "He just laughed, and said, 'Sit. Play.' I continued to sit and play for a couple years." At this time, his brother was forming a new musical theater group, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The group performed the music for Richard's debut feature film, Forbidden Zone. Danny Elfman composed his first score for the film and played the role of Satan. By the time the movie was completed, they had taken the name Oingo Boingo and begun recording and touring as a rock group.

In 1985, Tim Burton and Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. 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 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.[citation needed] 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. He also, more recently, accompanied Tim Burton in the composition of music for "Almost Alice", the soundtrack for Alice in Wonderland.

Burton has said of his relationship with Elfman: "We don't even have to talk about the music. We don't even have to intellectualize – which is good for both of us, we're both similar that way. We're very lucky to connect" (Breskin, 1997).

In 2021 he released "Big Mess", his first non-soundtrack album since 1984's "So-Lo", which is often considered to rather be an Oingo Boingo album due to the presence of many other band members.

Elfman has three children: Lola, born in 1979; Mali, born in 1984; and Oliver, born in 2005. On November 29, 2003, Elfman married film actress Bridget Fonda. In 1997 he scored A Simple Plan – his only score for one of her films to date (although he did compose a cue for the film Army of Darkness, in which Fonda has a cameo). He is the uncle of actor Bodhi Elfman who is married to actress Jenna Elfman, known most notably in her role as Dharma in the TV series Dharma and Greg.

Alice's Theme
Danny Elfman Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Oh, Alice, dear where have you been
So near, so far or in between
What have you heard what have you seen
Alice, Alice, please, Alice

Oh, tell us are you big or small
To try this one or try them all
It's such a long, long way to fall

Alice, Alice, oh, Alice

How can you know this way not that
You choose the door you choose the path
Perhaps you should be coming back
Another day, another day
And nothing is quite what is seems
You're dreaming are you dreaming, oh, Alice

Alice

(Oh, how will you find your way? Oh, how will you find your way)
(There's no time for tears today. There's no time for tears today)

So many doors, how did you choose
So much to gain so much to lose
So many things got in your way
No time today, no time today
Be careful not to lose your head
Just think of what the doormouse said Alice

Did someone pull you by the hand
How many miles to Wonderland
Please tell us so we'll understand
Alice, Alice, oh, Alice

Oh, how will you find your way
Oh, how will you find your way

Overall Meaning

Danny Elfman's timeless classic Alice's Theme is known by many as the introductory soundtrack to the 2010 Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice in Wonderland. The song is deeply metaphorical, and the lyrics imply that Alice has left the idyllic world of childhood behind and is venturing into the confusing and chaotic realm of adulthood. The chorus of the song repeatedly poses the question “Oh, how will you find your way?” which is symbolic of Alice trying to make sense of the world and her place in it.

The first verse asks where Alice has been and what she has heard and seen. Alice is being called to a distant, strange world, but she’s not sure where it is or what it means. The chorus is sung twice, each time questioning whether she is big or small, and if she should try one of the doors in front of her, and if she can find her way. The second verse is more cautionary, similar to Carroll’s "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in which Alice is warned against opening a door to a dark and menacing figure. The lyrics warn Alice to be careful not to lose her head, which is especially clever in a story where losing one’s head is a potent metaphor. Despite the trepidation, the chorus remains, questioning how Alice will find her way.

Elfman admitted that his goal for Alice's Theme was to capture the feeling of disorientation that Alice feels, so the piece has a shifting time signature and a polyphonic style, combining various instruments of different timbres.

Alice's ThemeDanny Elfman Lyrics

Alice's Theme
Danny Elfman Lyrics