Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s.[3] Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores,[4] as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.
Elfman was born on May 29, 1953, in Los Angeles, California[15] to a Jewish family of Russian descent.[3][16] He is a son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher, and the brother of actor, musician, and journalist Richard Elfman.[17] Elfman was raised in an affluent, racially-mixed community in Baldwin Hills, California, where he spent much of his time at the local movie theater discovering classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror films and first noticed the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman.[18] Elfman has admitted to fabricating stories about his past out of boredom, including a false birthplace of Amarillo, Texas, and parents in the United States Air Force.[19]
In his early school days, Elfman exhibited an aptitude for science with almost no interest in music, and was even rejected from elementary school orchestra "for having no propensity for music."[20]: 15 This would change when he switched high schools in the late 1960s and fell in with a musical crowd, who introduced him to early jazz and the work of Stravinsky and his 20th-century contemporaries.[20]: 17
After finishing high school early with plans to travel the world, Elfman followed his brother Richard to France, where he performed violin with Jérôme Savary's Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group.[21] He then embarked on a ten-month, self-guided tour through Africa, busking and collecting a range of West African percussion instruments until a series of illnesses forced him to return home.[22] At this time, Richard was forming a new musical theater group in Los Angeles.[23]
After returning to Los Angeles from Africa in the early 1970s, Elfman was asked by his brother Richard to serve as musical director of his street theatre performance art troupe The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.[20]: 22 Elfman was tasked with adapting and arranging 1920s and 1930s jazz and big band music by artists such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Josephine Baker for the ensemble, which consisted of up to 15 performers playing upwards of 30 instruments.[24] He also composed original pieces and helped build instruments unique for the group, including an aluminum gamelan, the 'Schlitz celeste' made from tuned beer cans, and a "junkyard orchestra" built from car parts and trash cans.[25]
The Mystic Knights performed on the street and in theaters, and later in nightclubs throughout Los Angeles until Richard left in 1976 to pursue filmmaking.[20]: 15 As a send-off to the group's original concept, Richard produced the film Forbidden Zone based on the Mystic Knights' stage performances. Elfman composed the songs and his first score for the film, and appeared as the character Satan, who performs a reworked version of Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher."[26]
Before the release of Forbidden Zone, Elfman took over the Mystic Knights as lead singer-songwriter in 1976. In 1979, he pared the group down to eight players to record and tour as a ska-influenced new wave band. That summer, the group's name would change to Oingo Boingo.[27][2] Their biggest success among eight studio albums penned by Elfman was 1985's Dead Man's Party,[28] featuring the hit song "Weird Science" from the movie of the same name.[3] The band also appeared performing their single "Dead Man's Party" in the 1986 movie Back to School,[29] for which Elfman also composed the score. Elfman shifted the band to a more guitar-oriented rock sound in the late 1980s,[30] which continued through their last album Boingo in 1994.
Citing permanent hearing damage from performing live and conflicts with his film-scoring career,[20]: 137 Elfman retired Oingo Boingo in 1995 with a series of five sold-out final concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre ending on Halloween night.[31][32] On October 31, 2015, Elfman and Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek performed the song "Dead Man's Party" with an orchestra as an encore to a live-to-film concert of The Nightmare Before Christmas score at the Hollywood Bowl. Elfman told the audience the performance was "20 years to the day" of Oingo Boingo's retirement.[33]
Film scoring
As fans of Oingo Boingo,[34]Tim Burton and Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure in 1985.[35] Elfman was initially apprehensive because of his lack of formal training and having never scored a studiofeature, but after Burton accepted his initial demo of the title music, and with orchestration assistance from Oingo Boingo guitarist and arranger Steve Bartek, Elfman completed the score to great effect, paying homage to influential film composers Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann.[36][37][38] Elfman described the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra as one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.[39]
With Batman, Elfman firmly established a career-spanning relationship with Burton,[40] scoring all but three of the director's major studio releases. Highlights include Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). In 1993, Elfman wrote the score and ten songs for the Burton-produced stop motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Henry Selick, and also provided the singing voice for main character Jack Skellington, as well as the voices for secondary characters Barrel, the Clown with the Tear-Away Face and others.[41] In 2005, he wrote the score and songs for Burton's Corpse Bride and provided the voice of the character of Bonejangles, and provided the score, songs and Oompa-Loompa vocals for Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that same year.
Elfman was featured in the 2016 documentary Score, in which he appeared among over 50 film composers to discuss the craft of movie music and influential figures in the business.[50][51]
In October 2013, Elfman returned to the stage for the first time since his band Oingo Boingo disbanded to sing a handful of The Nightmare Before Christmas songs as part of the concert Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton, featuring suites of music from 15 Tim Burton films newly arranged by Elfman.[69][70][71] The concert has since toured internationally and has played in Japan, Australia, Mexico and throughout Europe and the United States. Since 2015, Elfman has appeared regularly in a Hollywood BowlHalloween concert featuring full orchestra performing the Nightmare Before Christmas score live to the film projection.[72]
Elfman made his Coachella debut on April 16, 2022, with Danny Elfman: From Boingo to Batman to Big Mess to Beyond![73] The concert, postponed from Coachella 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, featured Elfman's film and television music arranged for band, orchestra and choir, as well as songs from his solo album Big Mess and new arrangements of songs from his Oingo Boingo catalogue. Conducted by Steve Bartek, and featuring Elfman (vocals, guitar, percussion), Wes Borland (guitar), Stu Brooks (bass), Nili Brosh (guitar), and Josh Freese (drums),[74] the concert was expanded for two shows Halloween weekend 2022 at the Hollywood Bowl.[75]
He has composed music for animated shorts, including Sally Cruikshank's Face Like A Frog[80] and Tim Burton's "Stainboy" internet series.[81]
Elfman provided background music for Luigi Serafini's solo exhibition il Teatro della Pittura at the Fondazione Mudima di Milano in Milan, Italy in 1998[82] and for the Tim Burton exhibition at MoMA in 2009.
In the 1990s, Elfman composed music for advertising campaigns for Nike, Nissan and Lincoln-Mercury, and in 2002 wrote the music for Honda's "Power of Dreams" advertising campaign, which was the first cinema commercial to be shot in the IMAX format.[83]
On October 31, 2019, the MasterClass online educational series released "Making Music out of Chaos," presenting 21 compositional and career lessons from Elfman's four decades of experience primarily in the film industry.[85]
In October 2020, Elfman released the single, "Happy," on Anti- Records and Epitaph Records.[88] From January 2021 on the eleventh day of each month, he released five subsequent singles "Sorry", "Love in the Time of COVID", "Kick Me", "True", and a reworking the Oingo Boingo song "Insects" from the album Nothing to Fear.[89] This culminated with the release of the double album Big Mess on June 11.[90] Featuring 18 original songs this was Elfman's first solo studio album since 1984's So-Lo.[91]
On August 11, 2021, Elfman released a remix of "True" with lead vocals shared between Elfman and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor.[92] A year later, Elfman released Bigger Messier, a compilation of 23 remixes of songs on the album Big Mess by artists including Reznor, Iggy Pop, Blixa Bargeld, Squarepusher, Boy Harsher and more.[93]
Though many believe Richard Wagner informed his influential score to Batman, Elfman has said it was more likely from Wagner's influence on classic film composers such as Herrmann, Steiner, Waxman and Korngold, as he was unfamiliar with Wagner's work at the time.[99]
Elfman counts Herrmann as his biggest influence, and has said hearing Herrmann's score to The Day the Earth Stood Still when he was a child was the first time he recognized film music as a cinematic art form and realized the powerful contribution a composer makes to the movies.[100]Pastiche of Herrmann's music can be heard in Elfman's Pee-wee's Big Adventure, especially the cues "Stolen Bike" and "Clown Dream", which directly reference Herrmann's music from Psycho and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad respectively.[101][102] His score to Batman makes more subtle nods to Herrmann's Journey to the Center of the Earth and Vertigo,[103][104] and more integral homage can be heard in later scores for Mars Attacks! and Hitchcock, as well as the "Blue Strings" movement of his first concert work Serenada Schizophrana.
Given his appreciation and study of world music and his vast collection of instruments from non-Western cultures,[22] Elfman will often use traditional instruments in his scores when there is an international setting, such as African percussion for Instinct, the oud for The Kingdom set in Saudi Arabia, and pan flute for Proof of Life set in South America.
For his film scores, Elfman draws musical inspiration almost exclusively from viewing a cut of the film,[71] and occasionally from visits to the set while the film is in production (he wrote and orchestrated his theme for Batman on an airplane to Los Angeles after visiting the set in London).[3] While he prefers not to work from script, story or concept, exceptions include The Nightmare Before Christmas, for which ten songs needed to be written in advance of filmmaking, and Dumbo, for which he composed the main theme before filming began.[49]
Once a rough cut of the film is ready, Elfman and the director have a spotting session to decide where to place music in the film, the emotional undercurrents of each scene, and overall tone.[110] Elfman then spends a few weeks of free composition and experimentation to begin working out thematic material and to develop sounds and the harmonic palette.[111]
When he has received approval on initial material from the filmmakers, Elfman begins to compose anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes of music cue-by-cue. He says two of the most important things to capture at this point are the tone of each scene and editorial rhythm. Next to thematic development, action set pieces tend to take Elfman the most time given the complexity of timing music to action.
Early in his career, he wrote out his scores using pencil, but has composed largely digitally since the mid-1990s.[112]
Before recording the score, he demos each cue by mocking orchestral and choral parts on synthesizer to get approval from the director.[113] Once approved, he provides a detailed, multi-line sketch of his composition to his lead orchestrator Steve Bartek, who ensures the sketches are appropriately broken down for sections of the orchestra (i.e. string, brasswoodwind, some percussion), choir (SATB) and individual players.
To produce the score, Elfman rents a recording studio and hires a conductor and orchestra/choir. He oversees the recording from the control booth so that he can troubleshoot with the film's director and recording engineers.[116] The final recording is given to the film's sound department to mix with dialogue and sound effects for the film's complete soundtrack. Elfman will usually do a separate mix of select cues for an album presentation of the score, and has produced nearly 100 to date.[15]
Elfman has only collaborated once with another artist: Siouxsie and the Banshees, on the song "Face to Face" for Batman Returns in 1992.[123] It was a long-distance collaboration, as the studio needed the song very quickly; Siouxsie created the foundation of the song and sent it to Elfman, who added elements, and the two would send the track back and forth.[124] Regarding collaboration, Elfman would later state, "I'm not used to collaborating at all with anybody. I did one track with Siouxsie and the Banshees but that's it. I've always been in my own bubble, and that bubble has been very fertile".[125]
Concert music
In the liner notes for the 2006 CD recording of his first concert work Serenada Schizophrana, Elfman wrote: "I began composing several dozen short improvisational compositions, maybe a minute each. Slowly, some of them began to develop themselves until finally I had six separate movements that, in some abstract, absurd way, felt connected."[94]
To create the cadenzas for his violin concerto Eleven Eleven, Elfman collaborated with soloist Sandy Cameron, for whom the piece was written.[126]
For Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Elfman setRoald Dahl's text for the Oompa-Loompa characters as four stylistically distinct songs: the Bollywood-influenced "Augustus Gloop", the funk-infused "Violet Beauregarde", the psychedelic pop stylings of "Veruca Salt" and the baroque rock of "Mike Teavee".[129] For all songs in the film, Elfman sang, manipulated and mixed several layers of his vocals to create the singing voices and harmonies of the Oompa Loompas, and incorporated his vocals into non-song score tracks that featured the characters, including "Loompa Land", "Chocolate River", "The Boat Arrives" and "The River Cruise".[130]
Lyrics
Elfman typically writes the lyrics to songs he has composed for movies. He employs song structures from Tin Pan Alley and early musical theatre composers (32-bar form), and pop and rock of the 1950s and 1960s (verse-chorus). As his songs serve to advance the plot and develop characters, lyrics reflect storylines and imagery specific to the film and express the inner life of characters.
He wrote the lyrics and music for ten songs featured in the stop-motion musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. Drawing from Tim Burton's parody poem of A Visit from St. Nicholas and concept drawings, Elfman wrote each song in consultation with Burton before the film even had a script.[131] These include the full-cast songs "This Is Halloween", "Town Meeting Song" and "Making Christmas"; four songs for the main character Jack Skellington, "Jack's Lament", "What's This?", "Jack's Obsession" and "Poor Jack", all sung by Elfman; and the other character songs "Kidnap the Sandy Claws", "Oogie Boogie's Song" and "Sally's Song". An eleventh song, "Finale/Reprise", reworks lyrics from the songs "This Is Halloween", "What's This?" and "Sally's Song" for the film's ending. Though uncredited, Burton contributed some lyrics to Nightmare, including the line "Perhaps it's the head that I found in the lake" in "Town Meeting Song".[132]
Elfman composed five songs for Burton's Corpse Bride:[133] "According to Plan", with lyrics co-written by screenwriter John August; "Remains of the Day" (which he sung as the character Bonejangles) and "Tears to Shed", both with additional lyrics by August; and "The Wedding Song", credited solely to Elfman. The song "Erased" was not used in the final film.
He wrote the lyrics to "Lullaby" from Charlotte's Web, the rock track "The Little Things" from Wanted which he also sang in English and Russian,[134] and "Alice's Theme" from Alice in Wonderland.[135] Elfman co-wrote the lyrics to "Twice the Love" from Big Fish and the "Wonka's Welcome Song" for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with John August.
Elfman wrote the lyrics to all of Oingo Boingo's original songs 1979–1994[136] and has made residuals on the titular two-word opening phrase sung in his The Simpsons theme since the series first aired in 1989.[137]
Personal life
As a teenager, Elfman dated his classmate Kim Gordon, who would later become one of the members of the rock band Sonic Youth.[138] He has two daughters, Lola and Mali, from his marriage to Geri Eisenmenger.[139] Mali is a film producer and actress.[140] Elfman and Mali collaborated on her 2011 film Do Not Disturb.[141]
Elfman has been an atheist since the age of 11 or 12. In an interview with the New York Post, he referred to himself as a "cynic-ologist".[145]
Describing his politics during the 1980s, Elfman said, "I'm not a doomist. My attitude is always to be critical of what's around you, but not ever to forget how lucky we are. I've traveled around the world. I left thinking I was a revolutionary. I came back real right-wing patriotic. Since then, I've kind of mellowed in between."[146] Several of his songs written for Oingo Boingo during this period satirized social politics, although Elfman stated his message was to "question, resist, challenge" and that his songs were not aligned to any one political agenda.[147]
During his 18 years with Oingo Boingo, Elfman developed significant hearing damage as a result of the continuous exposure to the high noise levels involved in performing in a rock band. Afraid of worsening his condition, he decided to leave the band, saying that he would never return to that kind of performance. His impairment was so bad that he could not "even sit in a loud restaurant or bar anymore." However, he found performing in front of orchestras more tolerable, and returned several times to reprise his live performance of Jack Skellington.[2][151][152]
Sexual harassment lawsuits
In July 2023, Rolling Stone reported that composer Nomi Abadi had accused Elfman of sexually harassing her between 2015 and 2017. According to the magazine's reporting, Abadi and Elfman signed a non-disclosure agreement in 2018, with Elfman agreeing to pay Abadi $830,000 in installments if she did not publicize her allegations against him. Abadi stipulated that part of the settlement would help establish a nonprofit foundation, the Female Composer Safety League. When Elfman defaulted on payments to the League, Abadi filed a breach of contract suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, leading to the matter becoming public.[153]
After Rolling Stone revealed the existence of this agreement, Elfman denied the allegations, and said that he only agreed to the settlement because he feared that his "50-year career may be destroyed in one news cycle" if the claims had been published. Elfman stated Abadi had a "childhood crush" on him and intended to break up his marriage to pursue him romantically, but that he rejected her advances, leading to the allegations. Elfman's lawyer was quoted saying "accusations alone should not and do not equate to guilt, and Danny will defend himself and clear his name with the volume of evidence and the other party's own words — her words speak for themselves." The article also reports that Elfman provided two legal declarations, including one from a former friend of Abadi's, casting doubts on Abadi's claims.[153]
In response, Abadi's attorney Jeff Anderson stated, "It is ironic that Mr. Elfman's current statements are directly contrary to the position he maintained in the underlying dispute and to the evidentiary record."[154]
In October 2023, a Maryland woman, using the pseudonym Jane Doe XX, filed suit against Elfman for "sexual assault, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and negligence." The woman alleged that between 1997 and 2002 Elfman groomed and sexually abused her in a similar fashion to Abadi's claims.[155][156]
On July 10, 2024, Abadi sued Elfman for defamation concerning the statements he had made about the allegations to Rolling Stone in 2023.[157] He was represented by a team including Camille Vasquez of the Depp v. Heard trial.[158]
On September 4, 2024, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa K. Sepe-Wiesenfeld granted Elfman's motion for summary judgment in the lawsuit filed by Jane Doe XX and dismissed the case. Hon. Sepe-Wiesenfeld stated that the plaintiff's claims did not satisfy the requirements of the revival statute she had cited, that she had provided only "speculative statements" of possibly being assaulted while asleep, and that "no triable issue of fact" existed.[159]
In popular culture
Since The Simpsons' second annual Treehouse of Horror episode aired in 1991, launching "scary names" tradition in the opening and closing titles, Elfman has been alternately credited for the theme music as "Red Wolf Elfman", "Danny Skellingelfman", "Li'l Leakin Brain Elfman", "Boris Elfmonivich", "Danny Elfblood", "Danny 'Hell'fman", "The Bloody Elf", "Danny Elfbones", "Elfmunster" and "Daniel Beilzebelsman".
In the 2007 sixth season Star Wars parody "Blue Harvest", Family Guy lampooned Elfman's orchestral style. A scene shows Elfman replacing an incinerated John Williams to conduct a full orchestra playing the score, only to be decapitated by a lightsaber after conducting a few bars of oom-pah music.[162]
In 2019, selections from Elfman's Midnight Run score were used in the third season of Netflix's Stranger Things,[166] including "Stairway Chase" in episodes 5 and 6, and "Wild Ride" and "Package Deal" in episode 6.
^ abcKraft, Richard. "Danny Elfman". Kraft-Engel.com. Kraft-Engel Management. Retrieved October 8, 2019. Beginning with his first score on Tim Burton's Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Elfman has scored over 100 films...
^ abCarruthers, Fiona (August 2, 2015). "How Danny Elfman got his inspiration for the Simpsons theme tune". The Australian Financial Review. Sydney. Retrieved October 13, 2019. I took a year off to travel Africa when I was 18. On my 19th birthday I crossed into Nigeria... I spent time in Mali, Ghana, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya... I have all my drums from India, Africa, plus my gamelan (percussive music set) from Bali...
^ abMusic for a Darkened Theatre: Film & Television Music Volume One (booklet). Danny Elfman. Universal City, CA: MCA Records. 1990. p. 3–9. MCD10065.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Galindo, Brian (October 14, 2013). "18 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Nightmare Before Christmas". BuzzFeed. Retrieved October 14, 2019. 8. Burton's friend and composer Danny Elfman wrote the songs and music for the film without a script or storyboard... 9. Elfman also provided the singing voice for Jack...11. Elfman also provided the voices for Barrel and the Clown with the Tear-Away Face.
^Kis, Eva (February 8, 2019). "Wait, Danny Elfman wrote the music for 50 Shades of Grey?". Metro. Retrieved October 11, 2019. We ask Danny Elfman, better known as Tim Burton's collaborator on spooky fairy tales, about composing the music for all three Fifty Shades of Grey movies.
^ abBond, Jeff (2019). Mission: Impossible – Limited Edition (booklet). Danny Elfman. Los Angeles, CA: La-La Land Records, Inc. pp. 5–6. LLLCD1411.
^ abLenker, Maureen Lee (November 9, 2019). "Danny Elfman talks reinventing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" with Tyler the Creator". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 12, 2019. ...once Elfman felt his own heart grow two sizes when it came to Christmas, incorporating the original songs become one of the highlights of writing his score for The Grinch. "The 'Welcome' song was easy," he says. "We were playing the song twice in the film, so it was just how to score it and then pick up the melody and have it kind of lift up and explode when his heart does." When it came to the other hit song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," Elfman had a slightly more complex task, collaborating with rapper Tyler the Creator on the iconic tune first recorded by Thurl Ravenscroft.
^ abcBurlingame, Jon (March 28, 2019). "Danny Elfman Broke His Cardinal Rule for Dumbo's Bittersweet Score". Variety. Retrieved October 12, 2019. "This is a cultural icon," the composer says, "and I was happy to pay homage." So "Pink Elephants on Parade," "When I See an Elephant Fly" and the train motif "Casey Junior" all make appearances...
^Goldstein, Gary (June 22, 2017). "Review: Score: A Film Music Documentary explores composers' art". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 20, 2019. Matt Schrader's "Score: A Film Music Documentary" spotlights such a rich and fascinating topic — the craft of motion picture scoring — that its mere presence proves a feast for the eyes and ears...the film is largely devoted to feting some of Hollywood's most influential composers...
^Ng, David (November 1, 2015). "Danny Elfman concert at Hollywood Bowl brings out Tim Burton fans". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 13, 2019. Danny Elfman was the main attraction on Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl during a live concert performance of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas...The screening of the 1993 stop-motion animated movie, with a live orchestra, felt almost like a decadent dessert to the main course... Elfman saved his entrance for last, sending the audience into a frenzy of cheering and fan worship.
^Music for a Darkened Theatre: Film & Television Music Volume One (booklet). Danny Elfman. Universal City, CA: MCA Records. 1990. p. 2. MCD10065.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Zahed, Ramin (November 2, 2000). "Stainboy". Variety. Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved October 7, 2019. Also effective is Burton's frequent music collaborator Danny Elfman, who offers a grandiose, orchestral score to the Stainboy's adventures.
^"Wacky Tracks". DannyElfman.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2019. In the mid 90s my friend Luigi Serafini, who's an amazing artist, asked me to write something to play for his gallery show in Milan, Italy. I put this together as a semi-composed, semi-DJ'd experiment for him.
^ abNapolitano, Dean (June 14, 2013). "Danny Elfman on Scoring for a Disney Ride". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 19, 2019. ...the film composer Danny Elfman jumped at the chance to try something new: creating the music for Mystic Manor, a new Disneyland ride in Hong Kong...Figures in Chinese art leap off the walls, Roman frescos come alive, musical instruments play themselves, and floating headgear from armored suits sing in three languages: Mandarin, Cantonese and English. ("It's me singing in English, by the way," Mr. Elfman says.)
^Geslain, Kristy (January 8, 2018). "This is Lincoln Center: Danny Elfman". lincolncenter.org. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 3, 2019. there are composers that I love that have bridged that gap [between serious and entertaining music]. I mean, most famously amongst them for me, John Adams and Philip Glass
^"Editorial Reviews: Pee-wee's Big Adventure". Filmtracks. May 26, 2011. Retrieved October 23, 2019. ...'Stolen Bike' is perhaps the clearest emulation of Herrmann's fearful tone from Psycho to ever exist (until Elfman ironically re-recorded the classic score in full over a decade later for the remake).
^"Danny Elfman: Wunderkind of Filmmusic – A Profile"(subscription). November–December 1989. Retrieved September 25, 2019. As for the Herrmann touch, Elfman was able to draw from that reservoir in some of the film's more inspires dream sequences. 'There was some strange and wonderful music of Herrmann's that influenced me, in particular, Jason and the Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Mysterious Island.'Alt URL
^"Episode 10: Batman". Art of the Score (Podcast). July 23, 2017. Event occurs at 1:01:30. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
^Burton, Byron (November 18, 2017). "Danny Elfman Hates When Reboots Scrap Classic Themes". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 10, 2019. Elfman and Whedon previously worked together on 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, another situation he describes as another "three-alarm call." He shared scoring credits with Brian Tyler.
^Colker, David (January 2001). "Keeping Score". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 14, 2019. I record my own samples, doing my own percussion. Percussion was my first love, and I have a whole warehouse of percussion instruments. When you hear percussion in the movies I do, it's probably me playing.
^Lanser, Bryan; Monahan, Kevin (1999). "Danny Elfman's big adventure continues in Sleepy Hollow". E-mu. Archived from the original on December 13, 2000. Retrieved October 30, 2019. I never conduct because the conductor's job for me is answering many questions all at once as quickly as possible, and then to keep things moving...I'm listening in the booth, which is where I prefer to listen anyway because I am hearing closer to the way it's going to sound.
^"Editorial Review: Fifty Shades Freed (Danny Elfman)". Filmtracks. March 4, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019. These projects have always been collaborations between Elfman and David Buckley, some of the concept's more memorable music actually the work of the ghostwriter.
^Corrado, E. (September 18, 2009). "The Music of 9 – An Interview With Composer Deborah Lurie". One Movie, Five Views. Retrieved November 1, 2019. it was decided that Danny [Elfman] would do the themes for the film, and then I would get to take them, elaborate and score the film around them.
^"Editorial Review: Alice in Wonderland". Filmtracks. March 9, 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2019. Late in the recording process, while stuck during a storm at an airport in London, Elfman decided to write lyrics to his main theme for Alice in Wonderland after recognizing his subconscious earlier choice to make the two final notes of the theme perfectly lend themselves to a performance of the name 'Alice.'
^Torok, Franchesca (August 31, 2017). "20 Stars You Forgot 'Appeared' in South Park". Screenrant. Retrieved October 14, 2019. Tim Burton is ridiculed for having Johnny Depp play main characters in all of his movies, and for using "the same crappy music" (meaning Danny Elfman) in all of his films.
^Leight, Elias (October 14, 2016). "Danny Elfman Scores Creepy 'Trump Stalks Hillary' Clip". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 14, 2019. In Elfman's new clip, titled 'Trump Stalks Hillary,' the swell of the music overwhelms Hillary's words. The composer builds anxiety with a tense string section, screechy, jarring effects and a haunting choir.