Music Box Dancer

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"Music Box Dancer" is an instrumental by Canadian musician Frank Mills that was an international hit in the late 1970s. It features a piano theme that is accompanied by other instrumentation, designed to resemble a music box.

"Music Box Dancer" was written and recorded by Frank Mills in 1974, but it was not to become a single until 1978^[1]. By Christmas of that year, it was in the top ten of many pop music charts throughout Europe and Asia. Released as a single in the United States late in 1978, it reached Number 3 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in April 1979^[2] and also reached number 3 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary charts and number 47 on the Canadian Pop charts.

“When I composed the song, I was searching for a title. One day my young daughter came to me with a broken music box to mend. There was a little dancer who popped up and spun around on a pedestal. Her arm was broken off. As I looked at it I said, ‘That’s what the song is, it’s the “Music Box Dancer!” ’ ” ........Frank Mills.

In 1979 through the early 1980s, "Music Box Dancer" was the theme for the CBS half hour documentary show "2 on the Town".

"Music Box Dancer" has been recorded by such well-known pianists as Floyd Cramer, Richard Clayderman, Roger Williams and Eric Robertson, and by orchestral artists such as James Last and 101 Strings. Bandleader Ray Conniff added lyrics and titled the song "Little Music Box Dancer" for his album I Will Survive in 1979. A calypso version was recorded by Germany's Roberto Delgado, while in Sweden, an accordion version was released. The band PePe even produced a techno version. This famous tune has even been whistled on one recording and sung in Japanese on another.

"Music Box Dancer" was one of the biggest instrumental pop music hits in the mid to late 20th century. By the late 1970s very few instrumental songs became pop music hits, and at the time many of the other instrumentals on the charts were disco-oriented, which "Music Box Dancer" was not.

The song is still heard in Canada, Mexico and the USA in a simplified form as the tune of certain ice cream trucks.

As of February 15, 2009, there were 44 different recordings of "Music Box Dancer" available on iTunes, 24 of which were available in iTunes Plus format.

[edit] Music Box Dancer in popular culture

A scene in the film Kill Bill features a truck playing this very song.

On their live DVD "Wiggle Dancing" the Wiggles dance to the song.

"Music Box Dancer" is featured in the Simpsons episode 'Bart Star'.

The song is also heard in the popular Korean drama Winter Sonata, in Episode 1.

[edit] Sheet music

The sheet music print version of the song has sold in excess of 3 million copies. It is distributed by Mayfair Montgomery Publishing.

The lyrics to the Ray Conniff version:

I dream of a music box dancer no one can see
She twirls around and round and dances only for me
She’s just a cute music box dancer singing for me
When I hear that melody I know I’ll never be free

She dances and she sings it and she has a good time
She smiles when she goes by and to me that’s just fine
She plays it and she sings it and she keeps to the time
And the little music box dancer will one day be mine

I dream about a girl who sings and dances for me
The love she gives to me is love that really could be
She twirls herself around and throws her kisses at me
My little music box dancer that no one can see

My little music box dancer that no one can see

I dream of a music box dancer playing her song
She sings it and she dances to it all day long
She’s just a cute music box dancer playing for me
When I hear that melody I know for me love can be

My little music box dancer is something to see
The way she twirls around is just as cute as can be
As long as she’s around I know I’ll never be free
Why no one else can see her is a mystery to me

I dream about a girl who sings and dances for me
The feeling that I have for her was just meant to be
And when she twirls around and throws her kisses at me
I love my music box dancer that no one can see

My little music box dancer that no one can see
My little music box dancer that no one can see
My little music box dancer that no one can see

[edit] References