Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo () was an American rock band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo that Elfman had previously led and written material for.
Oingo Boingo was known for their high-energy live concerts and experimental music, which can be described as combining elements of music such as new wave, art, punk, ska, pop, jazz and world amongst other genres. The band's body of work spanned 17 years with various genre and line-up changes. Their best-known songs include "Only a Lad", "Little Girls", "Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science", which is also their highest-charting song, reaching No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The band experienced multiple line-up changes, with Elfman, Leon Schneiderman, Dale Turner, Sam Phipps, Steve Bartek and John "Vatos" Hernandez being the constant members for most of their history. Oingo Boingo started as a ska and punk-influenced new wave octet, achieving significant popularity in Southern California. During the mid-1980s, the band adopted a more pop-oriented style before delving further into rock in 1994. At that point, the name was shortened to simply Boingo and the keyboard and horn sections were dropped. The band retired after a farewell concert on Halloween 1995, for which they reverted to the name Oingo Boingo and readopted the horn section.
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