Album of the Day

If Tim Burton was a surprising choice to helm the 1989 Batman reboot, so was his composer, Danny Elfman, who was at that point better known for fronting Oingo Boingo that for film music. But his BATMAN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE) silenced the skeptics - Elfman's moody yet magnificent orchestrations (particularly the Grammy-winning "The Batman Theme") played a key role in re-branding the campy crime fighter of 1960s TV into the Dark Knight. Prince may have gotten more press for his contribution to the film's soundtrack, but Elfman's music did quite nicely too; released as a stand-alone album (a rare occurrence in the 1980s), it reached #30 on the Billboard chart. Danny Elfman was born on this day in 1953, and we'll wish him a happy birthday with the BATMAN score.