Album · Oingo Boingo
Only a Lad by Oingo Boingo
Only a Lad is an album by Oingo Boingo, released in 1981. 4 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 18 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Little Girls”, on 11 lists with a best position of #47.
Only a Lad, Oingo Boingo's first full album, landed on A&M in June 1981 on the heels of their self-titled EP, and it's where Danny Elfman's old surrealist theater troupe, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, finished turning into a full-on new wave band. Elfman and guitarist Steve Bartek wrote the arrangements, and they play like a nervous breakdown set to a beat: time signatures and keys that lurch and switch, chords that wander in from jazz and the 20th-century concert hall, and an eight-piece lineup with Kerry Hatch on bass, Richard Gibbs on keyboards, Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez on drums and Leon Schneiderman, Sam "Sluggo" Phipps and Dale Turner blasting on horns.
Elfman said many of the songs grew out of newspaper stories, written as deliberately facetious jabs. "Little Girls", sung from inside the head of a man with inclinations nobody should accept, stirred up controversy, and its video has Elfman dancing through a surreal, empty suburban house. The title track became one of their best-known songs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Only a Lad on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Little Girls | 11 | #47 | – | 1988–2008 | |
| 2 | On the Outside | 3 | #6 | – | 1981–2003 | |
| 3 | What You See | 3 | #63 | – | 1981–2003 | |
| 4 | Nasty Habits | 1 | #1792 | – | 2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.