| "Music Box Dancer" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byFrank Mills | ||||
| from the album Music Box Dancer | ||||
| B-side | "The Poet and I" | |||
| Released | January 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 1974 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:15 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Songwriter | Frank Mills | |||
| Producer | Frank Mills | |||
| Frank Mills singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
"Music Box Dancer" | ||||
"Music Box Dancer" is aninstrumental piece by Canadian musicianFrank Mills that was an international hit in the late 1970s. It features anarpeggiatedpiano theme inD-flat major designed to resemble amusic box, accompanied by other instruments playing a counterpoint melody as well as a wordless chorus. Most modern piano music sheets have the song in the key of C major.
Mills wrote and recorded "Music Box Dancer" in 1974, but it did not become asingle until December 1978.[2] By Christmas of that year, it was in the top ten of many European and Asian pop music charts. Released as a single in the United States in January 1979,[3] it reached #3 on theBillboard Hot 100 chart on the week ending May 5,[3] and also reached #3 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart and #47 on the Canadian pop chart. The single also reached #14 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).[4]
In 1974, Mills released an album that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not initially a hit. When he re-signed with Polydor Records Canada in 1978, the label released a new song as a single, with "Music Box Dancer" on the B-side. The single was sent toeasy-listening stations in Canada, and one copy was mistakenly sent toCFRA, anOttawa pop station. The program director played the A-side and could not figure out why it had been sent to his station, so he played the B-side to see if the record label had been mistakenly marked. He liked "Music Box Dancer" and added it to his station's playlist.[citation needed]
The song's success at CFRA was swift. "Music Box Dancer" premiered on CFRA's top 30 chart on May 5, 1978;[5] by June 30, it was the #1 song on the station's playlist.[6] "Music Box Dancer" also began picking up play on other Canadian stations around this time, becoming a nationwide hit. Mills's album went gold in Canada, which, after several months, prompted Polydor in the US to release the album and single with the B-side "The Poet and I".
The million-selling Gold-certified single reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1979 as well as #4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, while the album reached #21 on the Billboard Top Album chart and also went gold. Around that time,Nashville, Tennessee television stationWNGE usedMusic Box Dancer as its news theme;[7] it became so popular amongMiddle Tennessee viewers that Polydor awarded a gold record to WNGE for breaking the single in the U.S.[citation needed]
It was Mills's only U.S. Top 40 pop hit; the follow-up, another piano instrumental titled "Peter Piper", peaked at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100, although it was a popular Top 10 hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Mills managed one final Adult Contemporary chart entry, "Happy Song", which peaked at #41 at the beginning of 1981.
Mills also released a version ofRicky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" with substantial airplay in Ontario during the 1970s and 1980s.
Weekly singles charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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"Music Box Dancer" has been recorded by such pianists asFloyd Cramer,Richard Clayderman,Roger Williams andEric Robertson, and by orchestral artists such asJames Last and101 Strings. BandleaderRay Conniff added lyrics and titled the song on his albumI Will Survive in 1979. Germany'sRoberto Delgado recorded a calypso version, and an accordion version was released in Sweden. The band PePe produced a techno version. It was also recorded by Enormous Richard for thePravda Records compilation20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions!. German singer Marion Maerz made a German vocal version of the song, andThe Wiggles covered it on the video/albumRacing to the Rainbow.[citation needed]
In 1980, Hong Kong singerPaula Tsui (Tsui Siu Fung) released a version of this song with the same melody and added Cantonese lyrics inspired by Frank Mills' Official music video, it was arranged by Paulino Chris Babida and with lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong (Zheng Guojiang).[18]The Ventures released a guitar-led cover version in their 1981 albumPops in Japan '81.[19] A cover version by session musicians was also used by the BBC in one of its trade-test transmission tapes in the late 1970s, most often accompanied by Test Card F in vision.[citation needed] The song is also often played byice cream trucks in North America.[20]
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