"Cinderella Undercover / Winning Side" Released: September 1988 (US)
Boingo Alive is a double album by American new wave band Oingo Boingo, released in 1988 by MCA Records. It was performed and recorded live in a rehearsal studio with no audience, with the band performing songs from previous albums and two previously unreleased songs to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the band's beginning.
Background
According to the Los Angeles Times, as well as the album's sleeve sticker and promotional material, Boingo Alive was recorded live on a soundstage over nine nights in July 1988.[1] The sticker and ads also read, "Hear our greatest hits the way they were meant to be heard—live".
After Oingo Boingo migrated from A&M Records/I.R.S. Records to MCA Records in 1984, A&M had retained ownership of the band's previous recordings, but by 1988 the band became legally able to re-record their old material. Frontman Danny Elfman stated that Boingo Alive was a project the band had been planning for years, as they had been unhappy with the sound of their studio recordings, particularly with regards to the comparative lack of "energy". Elfman stated, "This is our 10th anniversary as a band and we wanted to present our songs in a way that our fans have grown accustomed to (when) seeing us."[1]
On the choice to eschew an audience, Elfman said at the time, "I hate the poor fidelity and the crowd noise from live albums. It made more sense this way. It's just us playing in a big room with a mobile truck outside—minus the 10,000 screaming teenagers."[1]
