Dead Man's Party (album)

Dead Man's Party is the fifth album by American new wave band Oingo Boingo, released in 1985. The album cover art is an homage to the Mexican holiday Día de Los Muertos.

Dead Man's Party
Studio album by
Oingo Boingo
ReleasedOctober 28, 1985
RecordedApril–August 1985
GenreNew wave, ska, pop
Length41:00
LabelMCA Records
ProducerDanny Elfman and Steve Bartek
Oingo Boingo chronology
So-Lo
(1984)		 Dead Man's Party
(1985)		 Boi-ngo
(1987)
Singles from Dead Man's Party
  1. "Weird Science"
    Released: 1985
  2. "Just Another Day"
    Released: January 28, 1986
  3. "Dead Man's Party"
    Released: April 29, 1986
  4. "Stay"
    Released: 1986

Music

The album features a different musical style than the band's previous releases, with a more pop-friendly production sound and dance arrangements.

Elfman stated that he wrote the album's lead single, "Weird Science," spontaneously in his car, after receiving a call from director John Hughes about composing a song for his upcoming film of the same name. The song went on to become the band's most commercially successful single, which Elfman later regretted, as he believed it "just didn't feel like it was really a part of [the band's] repertoire."[1]

In film and television

"Just Another Day" was featured as the opening theme for the 1985 film That Was Then... This Is Now. It also appears in season 2, episode 1 of the Netflix series Stranger Things where it underscores Hopper's introduction scene, though somewhat anachronistically, as the episode takes place on October 28, 1984, a full year before the actual release date of the Dead Man's Party album.

The title track appears in the 1986 film Back to School, wherein the band performs the song live at a party.[2] It also appeared in the Chuck television series, in the episode "Chuck Versus the Couch Lock".

"No One Lives Forever" appears within the opening minutes of two Cannon Group films: the 1986 production of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and the 1987 production of Down Twisted. It was later used in Casper: A Spirited Beginning (a 1997 direct-to-video release from 20th Century Fox and Saban Entertainment) and as the theme for the October 29, 2010 episode of Rachael Ray.

The song "Stay" became a hit in Brazil and was used as the theme song for the Brazilian Telenovela Top Model, which increased the popularity of the band in that country and resulted in a Brazilian compilation album, Stay. It was also featured in Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut,[3] as well as in the 2012 Australian film Any Questions for Ben?.

The final track, "Weird Science," was written for the aforementioned John Hughes film of the same name and was used again as the theme to the television series on the USA network.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Danny Elfman.

No.TitleLength
1."Just Another Day"5:14
2."Dead Man's Party"6:23
3."Heard Somebody Cry"4:39
4."No One Lives Forever"4:16
5."Stay"3:39
6."Fool's Paradise"4:36
7."Help Me"3:47
8."Same Man I Was Before"3:26
9."Weird Science"6:10
Total length:41:00

Charts
Chart (1985/86) Position
United States (Billboard 200) 95
Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] 65

Personnel

Oingo Boingo

References
  1. http://www.avclub.com/article/danny-elfman-oingo-boingo-film-scores-and-beatles--210856
  2. Dead Man's Party Songfacts
  3. "Donnie Darko soundtrack - IMDb". IMDb.com. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  4. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 222. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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