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.

Town Meeting Song
Danny Elfman Lyrics

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[JACK]
Listen, there were objects so peculiar
They were not to be believed
All around, things to tantalize my brain

It's a world unlike anything I've ever seen
And as hard as I try
I can't seem to describe

Like a most improbable dream

But you must believe when I tell you this
It's as real as my skull and it does exist
Here, let me show you

This is a thing called a present
The whole thing starts with a box

[DEVIL]
A box?
is it steel?

[WEREWOLF]
Are there locks?

[HARLEOUIN DEMON]
Is it filled with a pox?

[DEVIL, WEREWOLF, HARLEQUIN DEMON]
A pox
How delightful, a pox

[JACK]
If you please
Just a box with bright-colored paper
And the whole thing's topped with a bow

[WITCHES]
A bow?
But why?
How ugly
What's in it?
What's in it?

[JACK]
That's the point of the thing, not to know

[CLOWN]
It's a bat
Will it bend?

[CREATURE UNDER THE STAIRS]
It's a rat
Will it break?

[UNDERSEA GAL]
Perhaps it s the head that I found in the lake

[JACK]
Listen now, you don't understand
That's not the point of Christmas land

Now, pay attention
Now we pick up an oversized sock
And hang it like this on the wall

[MR. HYDE]
Oh, yes! Does it still have a foot?

[MEDIUM MR. HYDE]
Let me see, let me look

[SMALL MR. HYDE]
Is it rotted and covered with gook?

[JACK]
Hmm, let me explain
There's no foot inside, but there's candy
Or sometimes it's filled with small toys

[MUMMY AND WINGED DEMON]
Small toys

[WINGED DEMON]
Do they bite?

[MUMMY]
Do they snap?

[WINGED DEMON]
Or explode in a sack?

[CORPSE KID]
Or perhaps they just spring out
And scare girls and boys

[MAYOR]
What a splendid idea
This Christmas sounds fun
Why, I fully endorse it
Let's try it at once

[JACK]
Everyone, please now, not so fast
There's something here that you don't quite grasp
Well, I may as well give them what they want

And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last
For the ruler of this Christmas land
Is a fearsome king with a deep mighty voice
Least that's what I've come to understand

And I've also heard it told
That he's something to behold
Like a lobster, huge and red
And sets out to slay with his rain gear on
Carting bulging sacks with his big great arms
That is, so I've heard it said

And on a dark, cold night
Under full moonlight
He flies into a fog
Like a vulture in the sky
And they call him Sandy Claws

Well, at least they're excited
Though they don't understand

That special kind of feeling in Christmas land
Oh, well...

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Danny Elfman's Town Meeting Song convey the excitement and confusion of the citizens of Halloween Town as they try to understand the concept of Christmas. The main character, Jack, attempts to explain the various aspects of the holiday, such as presents and stockings, but his descriptions are met with confusion and fear from the other Halloween creatures. Despite their misinterpretations and misunderstandings, Jack decides to embrace Christmas and incorporate its festivities into their own Halloween celebrations.

The lyrics highlight the stark contrast between Halloween and Christmas, and the struggle for the characters to understand a holiday that is so different from their own. Jack's attempt to bring Christmas to Halloween Town is met with scrutiny and confusion, but his determination to embrace the holiday results in a unique and exciting celebration that combines the two holidays. The lyrics also introduce the character of "Sandy Claws," a terrifying version of Santa Claus who is rumored to slay with his rain gear.

Overall, the song conveys a sense of wonder and excitement about the possibilities of blending different holiday traditions and creating something entirely new.

Town Meeting SongDanny Elfman Lyrics

Town Meeting Song
Danny Elfman Lyrics