Dead Mans Party Weird Science Oingo Boingo

Dead Mans Party Album: Dead Man's Party (1985)
Weird Science Album: Dead Man's Party (1985)
by Oingo Boingo

Dead Mans Party is about attending funeral and being buried. The lyrics make a few clever references to it Even from the opening line of "All dressed up with nowhere to go/Walking with a dead man over my shoulder." Later Danny Elfman sings, "Got my best suit and my tie, Shiny silver dollar on either eye, I hear the chauffeur comin' to the door, Says there's room for maybe just one more..." Being dressed in his best suit refers to the tradition of dressing the dead in their finest clothes, the silver dollars were once used to weight the eyelids closed, and the dead would pay the ferryman to cross the River Styx from Greek mythology.

The chauffeur saying there is room for one more refers to campfire horror story were a man is woken up in the night by a car honking and as he looks out the window. He sees six of his friends in the car dressed in suits, the driver then tells the man that there is room for one more. Later the man tells a friend the story before dying in car wreck and the friend believes the man had predicted his own death.

Dead Mans Party was featured in the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back To School, where Oingo Boingo play at a college party.
The song was one of Oingo Boingo's most loved by fans, and the dancing skeletons became one of the most recognized symbols of the band.

Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo is the well-known composer for many Tim Burton movies, including The Nightmare Before Christmas (on which he is also the singing voice of Jack Skellington), Batman, the theme for the Simpsons, and many, many others. He is also the uncle to actress Jenna Elfman, star of Dharma And Greg.

Oingo Boingo was formed by Richard Elfman to provide music for a film he was working on. The group ended up writing music for their own releases as well as other movies, including Back To School. "Weird Science" was written for the John Hughes movie Weird Science, about two kids who find a way to create a beautiful woman through science. The band had to rush this out and didn't like the song, but it became well known due to its use in the movie, and was included on their album Dead Man's Party.

Danny Elfman (Richard's brother), was lead singer of the group. He went on to write theme music for many popular movies and TV shows, including The Simpsons, Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissorhands.

The Weird Science movie was turned into a TV series in 1994 starring Vanessa Angel as the female creation. The series ran for five seasons, and used this song as its theme.