Van Tongeren began his career as one of the original members of Media Ventures (now Remote Control Productions). During his time at Media Ventures Van Tongeren worked on films such as Thelma and Louise, True Romance and Drop Zone with Hans Zimmer. He also collaborated with Mark Mancina on Speed, Moll Flanders, Fair Game, Assassins and Twister.

Van Tongeren then began to compose music for television series, including Poltergeist: The Legacy and the nineties revival of The Outer Limits, which he won awards for. Van Tongeren again collaborated with Mancina the Speed sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and then he worked with Trevor Rabin on the 1998 film Armageddon.

Outside of film and television Van Tongeren was asked to work on three orchestrated interludes and production for the late Jazz drummer Tony Williams' 1996 album Wilderness. Van Tongeren has also worked with Chicago, Robbie Nevil, John Parr, Starship, Jeff Beck, Quincy Jones and Al Jarreau. Van Tongeren also owns The Blue Room, a recording studio in Los Angeles.

In the 2000s Van Tongeren continued working on film scores, such as xXx and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Randy Edelman, The Passion of the Christ with John Debney, Miss Congeniality 2' 'and the Disney films The Cheetah Girls and "Princess Protection Program". He also scored more sci-fi television series including The 4400, for which he won the BMI award. His songwriting has led to platinum CDs for The Rhythm of The Pridelands - Disney and The Cheetah Girls (soundtrack), as well as the hit single for Starship, It's Not over, till It's Over and 3 songs on the Wall-E Inspired by CD.

2010 saw projects including Iron Man 2 and "Predators" with John Debney and movies for Nickelodeon and Disney. John also wrote and produced songs on Disney's "Tinkerbell and The Lost Treasure" and "Bayou Boogie:Inspired by Princess & The Frog". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.