Music Box Dancer

"Music Box Dancer"
Single by Frank Mills
from the album Music Box Dancer
B-side"The Poet and I"
ReleasedJanuary 1979
Recorded1974
Genre
Length3:15
LabelPolydor
Songwriter(s)Frank Mills
Producer(s)Frank Mills
Frank Mills singles chronology
"Love Me, Love Me Love"
(1972)
"Music Box Dancer"
(1979)
"Peter Piper"
(1979)
Audio sample
"Music Box Dancer"

"Music Box Dancer" is an instrumental piece by Canadian musician Frank Mills that was an international hit in the late 1970s. It features an arpeggiated piano theme in C-sharp major (enharmonic to D-flat major) designed to resemble a music 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 a single 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 the Billboard 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 did well in Australia, reaching #14 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).[4]

A few notes are missing in the third repeated introduction to the main melody, which could not be corrected, as Mills did not have the funds to record another take.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Molanphy, Chris (September 15, 2023). "Insert Lyrics Here Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  2. ^ American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, March 10, 1979
  3. ^ a b Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  4. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Forum - CHART POSITIONS PRE 1989 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2016-10-13.