the obscure bands thread made me think of them. Does anybody else like this relatively unsuccessful band from the '80s? just watched donnie darko and was reminded what a great song "stay" was.

Also, their piece in texas chainsaw massacre 2 is the tits.

How do you define relatively unsuccessful?

And you do know who the lead singer was, right?

Right?

If a band with a gold album is relatively unsuccessful, I don't what successful is.

Dead Man's Party is one of my favorite albums.

Listen to the soundtrack for Pee Wee's Big Adventure and hear how much of those ideas morphed into soundtrack for The Simpsons. Especially the main themes for each.

Elfman has done so many amazing things. Truly a genius.

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Listen to the soundtrack for Pee Wee's Big Adventure and hear how much of those ideas morphed into soundtrack for The Simpsons. Especially the main themes for each.

Elfman has done so many amazing things. Truly a genius.

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His greatest work imo is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Four Words: Teen Wolf Too Montage

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Listen to the soundtrack for Pee Wee's Big Adventure and hear how much of those ideas morphed into soundtrack for The Simpsons. Especially the main themes for each.

Elfman has done so many amazing things. Truly a genius.

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His greatest work imo is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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Batman Returns says hello

damn, i miss the montage. being em back, please.

OP fail.

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they also made an appearance in Back to School, performing Dead Man's Party. Danny Elfman is about as successful as they come.

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They also had songs on the Fast Times and Bachelor Party soundtracks

Good looking daughter also, Jenna Elfman.!

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Good looking daughter also, Jenna Elfman.!

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He's her uncle in law (she's married to Danny's nephew Bodhi Elfman)

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If a band with a gold album is relatively unsuccessful, I don't what successful is.

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If a band in its entire career only had 1 gold album (with the rest of their albums less than gold), I'd say that is relatively unsuccessful. Especially without even a top 10 hit, as Oingo Boingo sits.

Elfman's fame and repertoire is largely his score work. That doesn't make the band he was previously in more successful.

So this band has a hit with a song in an 80s movie. Many one hit wonder bands are still relatively unsuccessful.

I'd say a gold album was successful in the 50s and 60s; Platinum for the 70s and beyond.

That's crap.

I would say they're relatively successful.
You have never heard of unsuccessful bands.

A relatively unsuccessful 80s band would be Napolean Machine Gun.



Btw, it wasn't lack of talent that they didn't make it was the birth of Grunge.

That's weird. It was the wrong video a minute ago.

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If a band with a gold album is relatively unsuccessful, I don't what successful is.

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If a band in its entire career only had 1 gold album (with the rest of their albums less than gold), I'd say that is relatively unsuccessful. Especially without even a top 10 hit, as Oingo Boingo sits.

Elfman's fame and repertoire is largely his score work. That doesn't make the band he was previously in more successful.

So this band has a hit with a song in an 80s movie. Many one hit wonder bands are still relatively unsuccessful.

I'd say a gold album was successful in the 50s and 60s; Platinum for the 70s and beyond.

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You have never heard of unsuccessful bands.

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Ummm.. actually I've heard of a whole bunch of unsuccessful bands, including a few that I was in!

Maybe we're arguing over semantics of the term 'relatively unsuccessful', when in actuality, what I think OP is trying to say is Oingo Boingo is not very well known (obscure), and my thoughts back that statement up. They had a small window of fame, and it wasn't very much fame to begin with. A gold record and a few songs that made it onto the billboard charts at high numbers.

I had never heard Stay, and now I've listened to it a dozen times in the last 24 hours. Thanks OP.

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You have never heard of unsuccessful bands.

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Ummm.. actually I've heard of a whole bunch of unsuccessful bands, including a few that I was in!

Maybe we're arguing over semantics of the term 'relatively unsuccessful', when in actuality, what I think OP is trying to say is Oingo Boingo is not very well known (obscure), and my thoughts back that statement up. They had a small window of fame, and it wasn't very much fame to begin with. A gold record and a few songs that made it onto the billboard charts at high numbers.

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I disagree. I think anyone that was aware in the 1980s knows them.

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You have never heard of unsuccessful bands.

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Ummm.. actually I've heard of a whole bunch of unsuccessful bands, including a few that I was in!

Maybe we're arguing over semantics of the term 'relatively unsuccessful', when in actuality, what I think OP is trying to say is Oingo Boingo is not very well known (obscure), and my thoughts back that statement up. They had a small window of fame, and it wasn't very much fame to begin with. A gold record and a few songs that made it onto the billboard charts at high numbers.

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I disagree. I think anyone that was aware in the 1980s knows them.

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And what exactly is your basis? Because they had a song featured in a teen comedy film that did about $40 million at the box office? Their album sales and charting doesn't exactly represent a band that 'everyone knows'.

Dude, Oingo Boingo was pretty successful and known. They most definitely were not obscure

I know very little about music. I know Oingo Boingo. I would say that most gen Xers know the band.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in music (outside of country and rap), and I had never heard of them until in the last decade or so, reading about Danny Elfman.

Again, their album sales and chart performance back up my opinion..No one has presented anything that proves otherwise other than their own anecdotal account of how they perceived the bands' popularity in the 80s.

*Their 'well known' song reached an unimpressive #45 on the charts (that's no 'don't you forget about me').
*They released 8 albums and nothing I can find shows that all in they even sold a million copies.
*Based on setlist.com, they played almost exclusively in CA. All of maybe 10 shows out side of CA in their 15 years, and none outside of U.S. This shows they were more of a regional band.

That is a very low level of fame. They sound about as famous as someone like big head todd and the monsters... one minor song on the radio, much more popular in their home state than across the US. Can make a living releasing albums that can sell a few hundred thousand copies and playing large shows in your home market.

Hell, even Big Head Todd has a platinum album.

Anyway seeing as I don't know anything about this band other than what I've read in the last hour, I don't really care anymore. Just trying to soften the blow to the OP, since everyone seems to think this band is an INXS or depeche mode or something.. and I think I even read 'one of the decade's biggest hits'.

#45 on the chart is one of the biggest hits of the decade huh?

How old are you?

I think the term relatively unsuccessful is the crux of the argument.

How can a gold album and a top 50 hit be unsuccesfful?

Compared to INXS yeah, maybe they are. Compared to 99.9% of all musicians, they're pretty damn successful.

Maybe it's a glass half full glass half empty argument.

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We'll have to agree to disagree. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in music (outside of country and rap), and I had never heard of them until in the last decade or so, reading about Danny Elfman.

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Then you aren't "pretty knowledgeable in music"

HTH.

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How old are you?

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Bingo. Anybody who's "knowledgeable in music" but never heard of Oingo Boingo is hovering around 25 AND doesn't know nearly as much about music as they think they do.

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How old are you?

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Bingo. Anybody who's "knowledgeable in music" but never heard of Oingo Boingo is hovering around 25 AND doesn't know nearly as much about music as they think they do.

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Or 55.