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 #3 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in April 1979^[2] and also reached #3 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary charts and #47 on the Canadian Pop charts. The single also did quite well in Australia, reaching #14 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).^[3]

“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 Nashville, TN, known as Music City, news producer Bob Parker at television station WNGE began playing "Dancer" over the closing credits of the newscast. Nashville DJs quickly latched on and both the single and album were hits.

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 North America 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.

The music plays during the closing credits of Thomas Vinterberg's Dogma 95 film, Festen (Celebration).

[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 open with the following lines:

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

[edit] References

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