Growing up with 80’s movies it was impossible not to hear the unmistakable new-wave ska-punk sounds of Oingo Boingo ringing out on (it seemed) every teen flick of the decade.
Starting with the obvious title track of Weird Science. But due to the internet not existing or access to very rare (and always import-only) soundtrack albums, it took me years to figure out the name of the band that was responsible for all those awesome songs. Film after film I’d hear Danny Elfman’s anarchic, almost theatrical, voice ring out: Gratitude (from Beverly Hills Cop), Dead Man’s Party (from Back To School), Flesh and Blood (from Ghostbusters 2), to name but a few.
Although a reasonably successful band in the US, Oingo Boingo’s albums were non-existent in South Africa. So it was only in 1994, a full ten years after I’d first heard them, that I managed to find the CD for Boingo. Their last studio album. Although a great album in itself, it doesn’t feature the songs that truly inspired and excited me when I was a kid. So to that end I’ve chosen Dead Man’s Party as the album of choice, which includes Dead Man’s Party, No One Lives Forever, Stay and, of course, that first song that blew me away, Weird Science.