5 Best Film Scores by Danny Elfman

*Originally published on 3/2/09



5. Beetlejuice
The most notable track on this soundtrack is the main theme, which is always a joy to listen to. It's not that the rest of the soundtrack is bad. On the contrary, it's a perfect fit for the movie, unlike the other movies though, it only has one standout tune that people remember.

4. Nightmare Before Christmas

Burton and Elfman really seemed like a match made in heaven. Their sensibilities synced up perfectly on several occasions. Here not only do we get Elfman instrumentals, but we get to hear him sing as well. Actually I liked Jack's singing (Elfman) better than I did his regular voice. This is Halloween, Jack's Lament, and The Oogey Boogey song are the personal highlights for me. Like the movie, the soundtrack is bizarre and amazing at the same time.

3. Batman

For a long time, I figured this was the definitive soundtrack for the Dark Knight. Between its use in the first two Batman films and the fact that Dini and Timm used it for Batman: The Animated Series, it seemed like Batman had only one sound. Like Williams' score for the Superman films, Elfman captured the elements of Batman's core and brought it to life with music.

2. Batman Returns

With the sequel to the popular film, Elfman stepped up his game and gave us an even better score. Each of the villains has distinctive tunes that work wonders in augmenting what we're seeing on screen. One of the reasons the movie works as well as it does is because Elfman did such a stellar job with this score. The scene where Selina wrecks her room would've lacked the impact had there not been any music. Were it not for Elfman, Penguin's final death sequence would've been downright goofy; as it is I see it as the saddest Batman villain death to date.

1. Edward Scissorhands

This is, in my humble opinion, the greatest work Elfman has done. Just listening to it, you get that storybook sense that the film had. If you watch the movie with Elfman's commentary you start to see that the film and music work together to tell the story. Even if you removed the dialogue, you'd still be able to tell what was going on just through the musical cues.