Danny Elfman, born in 1956, was a composer and multi-instrumentalist in his brother Richard’s performance art/new-wave rock band The Mystic Knights of Oinga Boinga (progressive shortenings of the name left only the last word before dissolution in 1995). One of his biggest influences is Bernard Herrmann, as reflected in the driving rhythms and dark, glittering orchestration of Spider-Man (2002). Elfman has scored several comic-book adaptations and sees Spider-Man as an “American” score, in contrast to the more Prokofiev-like Batman (1989).

Elfman is also famous for composing scores and songs for Tim Burton’s films, composing The Simpsons Theme, and many other film scores extensively since 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won a GRAMMY Award for Tim Burton’s Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. Elfman also wrote the theme for the video game Fable.