Frank Mills | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1942-06-27)27 June 1942 (age 83) |
| Instrument | Piano |
Frank Mills (born June 27, 1942) is a Canadianpianist and recording artist, best known for his solo instrumental hit "Music Box Dancer".
Mills was born inMontreal,Quebec. He was raised inVerdun, Quebec,[1] and started playing piano at the age of three. His family was musical, and his mother also played piano and his father sang tenor. By the time he was 17, both of his parents had died of cancer.[2]
Mills attendedMcGill University[1] for five years.[citation needed] At McGill, he initially studied engineering, but eventually switched to the Department of Music.[citation needed] He entertained hisDelta Upsilon fraternity brothers with songs fromragtime toBob Dylan (a new musician at the time). The fraternity piano hadthumbtacks on every hammer and produced a unique sound.[citation needed]
In the late 1960s, Mills became a member ofThe Bells. He left the band in 1971 just before it had international success with the single "Stay Awhile".
Mills worked as a pianist forCBC Television[1] and recorded his first solo album,Seven of My Songs, which produced the hit single "Love Me, Love Me Love". The song made its debut on the Canadian charts in October 1971, and early the following year, peaked atnumber one on the Canadian charts, number 46 on theBillboard Hot 100, and number eight onBillboard′s Easy Listening chart[3][4] His 1972 cover ofRicky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" made the top 25 on the Canadian charts, but only reached number 106 in the US.[5]
Mills released an album in 1974 that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not a hit initially. When he re-signed with executive Michael Hoppé atPolydor Records Canada in 1978, the label released a new song as a single, with "Music Box Dancer" on theB-side. The single was sent toeasy listening radio stations in Canada, but a copy was sent in error toCFRA-AM, apop station inOttawa. 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 was mistakenly marked. He liked "Music Box Dancer" and added it to his station's playlist, turning the record into a Canadian hit. Dave "50,000" Watts, anOttawa Valley radio personality, gave the record extensive airplay on the station.[6] The album went gold in Canada, which prompted Polydor in the US to release the album and single.
InNashville, news producer Bob Parker atWNGE-TV began playing the song over the closing credits of the newscast. Nashville DJs quickly gave the song airplay, and both the single and album were hits. The million-selling (gold-certified) single reached number three on theBillboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1979, as well as number four on theBillboard Easy Listening chart,[7][8] while the album reached number 21 on theBillboard Top Album chart[9] and also went gold. Polydor awarded a gold record to TV station WNGE for breaking the single in the US.
"Music Box Dancer" was Mills' only US top-40 pop hit. The follow-up, another piano instrumental, "Peter Piper", peaked at number 48 on theBillboard Hot 100, but became a top-10 hit on theBillboard Adult Contemporary chart.[7] Mills managed one final Adult Contemporary chart entry, "Happy Song", which peaked at number 41 at the beginning of 1981.[4]
Mills won twoJuno Awardsin 1980 for "Peter Piper", one forComposer of the Year and one forInstrumental Artist of the Year. He again won in the latter categoryin 1981.
He continued to release albums until the early 1990s. In 2010, he traveled on a Christmas tour with Canadian singerRita MacNeil.[10] Mills and MacNeil toured again in November–December 2012.[11]
"Music Box Dancer" was the theme song of the local Los Angeles CBS half-hour TV documentary show2 on the Town from 1979 through the early 1980s.
"Music Box Dancer" has been heard on an episode ofThe Simpsons and in theKill Bill movies. It was used as the theme tune to the BBC2 golf programme,Around with Alliss, and also as a popular track on the BBC1 trade test (testcard) transmissions. Other Frank Mills tracks, including "From a Sidewalk Cafe", were used on BBC1 and BBC2 in the 1970s and 1980s during testcard, ceefax, and intervals between programmes.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mills made a number of appearances on the annualTelemiracle telethons broadcast fromSaskatoon andRegina, Saskatchewan.
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