Dead Man's Party - 1988 Boingo Alive Version

This song is about attending funeral and being buried. The lyrics make a few clever references to it Even from the opening line of "All dressed up with nowhere to go/Walking with a dead man over my shoulder." Later Danny Elfman sings, "Got my best suit and my tie, Shiny silver dollar on either eye, I hear the chauffeur comin' to the door, Says there's room for maybe just one more..." Being dressed in his best suit refers to the tradition of dressing the dead in their finest clothes, the silver dollars were once used to weight the eyelids closed, and the dead would pay the ferryman to cross the River Styx from Greek mythology. The chauffeur saying there is room for one more refers to campfire horror story were a man is woken up in the night by a car honking and as he looks out the window. He sees six of his friends in the car dressed in suits, the driver then tells the man that there is room for one more. Later the man tells a friend the story before dying in car wreck and the friend believes the man had predicted his own death.

This song was featured in the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back To School, where Oingo Boingo play at a college party.

The song was one of Oingo Boingo's most loved by fans, and the dancing skeletons became one of the most recognized symbols of the band.