| "Music Box Dancer" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Frank 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(s) | Frank Mills | |||
| Producer(s) | Frank Mills | |||
| Frank Mills singles chronology | ||||
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| 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]
- ^ Molanphy, Chris (September 15, 2023). "Insert Lyrics Here Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
- ^ American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, March 10, 1979
- ^ a b Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
- ^ 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.