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.
Tears to Shed
Danny Elfman Lyrics
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That you don't have double?
She can't hold a candle
To the beauty of your smile
How about a pulse?
Overrated by a mile
If he only knew
The you that we do
And that silly little creature
Isn't wearing his ring
And she doesn't play piano
Or dance, or sing
No she doesn't compare
But she still breaths air
Who cares?
Unimportant, overrated
Overblown, if only he could see
How special you can be
If he only knew the you that we do
If I touch a burning candle
I can feel no pain
If you cut me with a knife
It's still the same
And I know her heart is beating
And I know that I am dead
Yet the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
And it seems I still have a tear to shed
The sole redeeming feature
From that little creature
Is that she's alive, overrated
Overblown, everybody knows
That's just a temporary state
Which is cured very quickly
When we meet our fate
Who cares?
Unimportant, overrated
Overblown, if only he could see
How special you can be
If he only knew the you that we do
If I touch a burning candle
I can feel no pain
In the ice or in the sun
It's all the same
Yet I feel my heart is aching
Thou it doesn't beat, it's breaking
And the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
I know that I am dead
Yet it seems I still have
Some tears to shed
The song “Tears to Shed” by Danny Elfman is a beautiful and haunting duet between two ghosts, Victoria and Emily, who are both vying for the affection of Victor, a living man. The song compares the qualities of the two women and asserts the superiority of the deceased Emily over Victoria. The first stanza reflects Victoria's jealousy towards Emily and her belief that Emily does not have any qualities that she lacks. However, Emily's lover, Victor, remarks that the qualities that she has are overrated and overvalued.
The second verse introduces the idea that Emily is dead and yet to feel pain. A burning candle cannot inflict pain on it, and thus, the lyrics convey that Emily is also hurt by Victor's rejection. What is even more poignant about this line is that Emily's heart aches even though it doesn't beat. Emily feels pain and continues to cry despite being dead. The characters' deepest emotions drive the song's action, and it becomes clear that the pain felt in death is genuine, and not something that can be shrugged off.
In conclusion, "Tears to Shed" is a song sung from the perspectives of two ghosts that love the same man. The lyrics' emotions are direct and drive the story. The song's protagonist, Emily, appears to be a superior match for Victor due to her having more personality and a stronger connection to both the dead and the living worlds.
Line by Line Meaning
What does that wispy little brat have
That you don't have double?
What makes that slender, insignificant girl special or different from you?
She can't hold a candle
To the beauty of your smile
How about a pulse?
Her presence and beauty are highly overrated and superficial, what she lacks is a heartbeat.
Overrated by a mile
Overvalued, overblown
If he only knew
The you that we do
The girl’s attributes and beauty are highly exaggerated since they don't know the real you.
And that silly little creature
Isn't wearing his ring
And she doesn't play piano
Or dance, or sing
No she doesn't compare
But she still breaths air
The girl may lack the talents and qualities that you possess, but unlike you, she is still alive and breathing.
Who cares?
Unimportant, overrated
Overblown, if only he could see
How special you can be
If he only knew the you that we do
The girl's value is unimportant and insignificant compared to the real you who they see as special and invaluable.
If I touch a burning candle
I can feel no pain
If you cut me with a knife
It's still the same
The singer has already lost their sensitivity to physical pain and therefore could never feel the pain of losing a loved one.
And I know her heart is beating
And I know that I am dead
Yet the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
And it seems I still have a tear to shed
The singer is in the afterlife and can feel his pain of losing a loved one, and his tears prove that this agony is still real as ever.
The sole redeeming feature
From that little creature
Is that she's alive, overrated
Overblown, everybody knows
That's just a temporary state
Which is cured very quickly
When we meet our fate
The only thing that's good about the girl is that she's still alive, which is a temporary state, because eventually, everyone has to meet their fate and depart.
If I touch a burning candle
I can feel no pain
In the ice or in the sun
It's all the same
The artist's loss of sensitivity due to death is impartial to varying degrees of pain like burning a candle or exposure to the extreme cold or sunshine.
Yet I feel my heart is aching
Thou it doesn't beat, it's breaking
And the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
I know that I am dead
Yet it seems I still have
Some tears to shed
Although physically dead and devoid of a beating heart, the artist's emotional pain is still raw, evident by the tears in the afterlife.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN MEISE AUGUST, DANNY ELFMAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind