Although they never really achieved the commercial break-though that was predicted for them, Oingo Boingo, still accomplished quite a lot within their nearly two-decade existence. At a time when "alternative" music had yet to breakthrough onto mainstream media radar, the band, led by front-man and future A-list film-score composer Danny Elfman made significant progress into the public consciousness. Winning a lot of popularity in and around their hometown of Los Angeles, they made a few high-profile media appearances while building a sizable amount of recorded work. The band's catalogue incorporated a few varying styles, combining darkly witty lyrics, dizzying herky-jerky rhythms and a blaring three-man horn section, all played at breakneck velocity and presided over by the playfully sardonic Elfman.

Oingo Boingo appeared out of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, an avant-garde comedy/music/theatre troupe created by Danny Elfman's older brother, Richard. During that time he had directed the underground cult film Forbidden Zone, for which Danny provided the score. When the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo disappeared in 1978, Danny Elfman, who had spent several years in France working with a theatre group and studying orchestra, made it possible to put it's musical elements into a more manageable band format.

With a shortened name, their new line-up was made up of Danny on vocals and guitar, Steve Bartek (lead guitar), Richard Gibbs (keyboard and trombone), Kerry Hatch (bass and vocals), Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez (drums), Sam "Sluggo" Phipps (tenor sax), Leon Schneiderman (baritone sax) and Dale Turner (trumpet).

And with five albums under their belts in spite of the band's increasing popularity, Oingo Boingo wouldn't release a new album for another two years, due in part to the demands of Elfman's growing career as a film composer. His inventive score for director Tim Burton's feature debut, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, would mark the beginning of a lengthy collaboration between the musician and filmmaker.

In 1987, the band returned with the album 'Boi-ngo', with 'Boingo Alive' in 1988 and Dark At The End of The Tunnel in 1990. Their final album was 1994's Boingo (on Giant Records) before officially breaking up, giving hometown fans a final performance on Halloween in 1995.

Since the band's break-up, front-man Danny Elfman has continued to find success in his career writing film scores, particularly in collaboration with director Tim Burton; he almost exclusively employs Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek as orchestrator.

And when asked during an interview if he ever had any notions of performing in an Oingo Boingo reunion, Elfman immediately turned down the idea and said that in the last few years of being with the band he had begun to develop significant and irreversible hearing damage as an outcome of the constant exposure to the high noise levels involved with performing in a rock band. And he then went on to say that he believes his hearing damage could partially be due to a genetic predisposition to hearing loss, and that he will never return to the stage for the fear of worsening the condition.