Editing Oingo Boingo (section)

===MCA years (1984–1992)===
[[File:boingo.png|thumb|upright|Oingo Boingo logo, adopted around the late 1980s]]
Elfman used the 1984 hiatus as an opportunity to release a solo album, co-produced with Steve Bartek, with the remaining members of Oingo Boingo returning as session musicians. This was released as ''[[So-Lo]]'' in late 1984. At this point, new manager [[Mike Gormley]], who had just left the position of VP of Publicity and Asst. to the Chairman of A&M, negotiated a release from the label and signed the band to [[MCA Records]].

Shortly after releasing ''So-Lo'', Oingo Boingo returned to performing with new bassist John Avila and keyboardist Mike Bacich. The first release with the new line-up was ''[[Dead Man's Party (album)|Dead Man's Party]]'' in 1985. The album marked a notable change towards more pop oriented songwriting and production style, and became the band's most commercially successful record. It featured their highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100, "[[Weird Science (song)|Weird Science]]", which was written for the [[John Hughes (filmmaker)|John Hughes]] [[Weird Science (film)|film of the same name]].

The band appeared on a number of movie soundtracks in the early to mid-1980s, including an appearance in the movie ''[[Back to School]]'' in 1986, performing their hit single "Dead Man's Party". The soundtrack to the movie ''[[Bachelor Party (1984 film)|Bachelor Party]]'' included a theme song written by Elfman, and a song unreleased on any Oingo Boingo album: "Something Isn't Right".

During this era, Danny Elfman also began scoring major films, beginning with 1985's ''[[Pee-wee's Big Adventure]]''. Elfman would go on to write the scores to almost all of [[Tim Burton]]'s films. Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek has [[Orchestrator#Dedicated orchestrators|orchestrated]] most of Elfman's film and television scores.

The album ''[[BOI-NGO]]'' was released in 1987. Following its recording, Bacich was replaced by new keyboardist [[Carl Graves]]. The band's 1988 release, ''[[Boingo Alive]]'', comprised "live" re-recordings of previous album songs on a studio soundstage, plus a new song, "Winning Side". This new track was also released as a single, and became a No. 14 hit on US Modern Rock radio stations.
[[File:Oingo Boingo 1987.jpg|thumb|Oingo Boingo in a promotional picture c.1987]]
In 1990, the band released their seventh studio album, ''[[Dark at the End of the Tunnel]]'', featuring more mellow songs than any previous release, and including the singles "Out of Control" and "Flesh 'N Blood".