Music Box Dancer

"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	Easy listening[1] soft rock
Length	3:15
Label	Polydor
Songwriter	Frank Mills
Producer	Frank Mills
Frank Mills singles chronology
"Love Me, Love Me Love" (1972) "Music Box Dancer" (1979) "Peter Piper" (1979)
Audio sample
"Music Box Dancer" file help

"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 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 reached #14 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).^[4]

In 1974, Mills released an album that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not initially a hit. When he re-signed with Polydor Records Canada in 1978, the label released a new song as a single, with "Music Box Dancer" on the B-side. The single was sent to easy-listening stations in Canada, and one copy was mistakenly sent to CFRA, an Ottawa pop station. 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 label had been mistakenly marked. He liked "Music Box Dancer" and added it to his station's playlist.^{[citation needed]}

The song's success at CFRA was swift. "Music Box Dancer" premiered on CFRA's top 30 chart on May 5, 1978;^[5] by June 30, it was the #1 song on the station's playlist.^[6] "Music Box Dancer" also began picking up play on other Canadian stations around this time, becoming a nationwide hit. Mills's album went gold in Canada, which, after several months, prompted Polydor in the US to release the album and single with the B-side "The Poet and I".

The million-selling Gold-certified single reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1979 as well as #4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, while the album reached #21 on the Billboard Top Album chart and also went gold. Around that time, Nashville, Tennessee television station WNGE used Music Box Dancer as its news theme;^[7] it became so popular among Middle Tennessee viewers that Polydor awarded a gold record to WNGE for breaking the single in the U.S.^{[citation needed]}

It was Mills's only U.S. Top 40 pop hit; the follow-up, another piano instrumental titled "Peter Piper", peaked at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100, although it was a popular Top 10 hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Mills managed one final Adult Contemporary chart entry, "Happy Song", which peaked at #41 at the beginning of 1981.

Mills also released a version of Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" with substantial airplay in Ontario during the 1970s and 1980s.

"Music Box Dancer" has been recorded by such 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 on his album I Will Survive in 1979. Germany's Roberto Delgado recorded a calypso version, and an accordion version was released in Sweden. The band PePe produced a techno version. It was also recorded by Enormous Richard for the Pravda Records compilation 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions!. German singer Marion Maerz made a German vocal version of the song, and The Wiggles covered it on the video/album Racing to the Rainbow.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980, Hong Kong singer Paula Tsui (Tsui Siu Fung) released a version of this song with the same melody and added Cantonese lyrics inspired by Frank Mills' Official music video, it was arranged by Paulino Chris Babida and with lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong (Zheng Guojiang).^[18] The Ventures released a guitar-led cover version in their 1981 album Pops in Japan '81.^[19] A cover version by session musicians was also used by the BBC in one of its trade-test transmission tapes in the late 1970s, most often accompanied by Test Card F in vision.^{[citation needed]} The song is also often played by ice cream trucks in North America.^[20]

This section may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please help improve it by removing such content and adding citations to reliable, independent sources. (September 2025)

• The tune was used as the theme music for BBC Radio 2's coverage of the 1978 Commonwealth Games. Presenter Terry Wogan referred to the tune as the 'demented pianist'.^{[citation needed]}
• A segment of the song was used in The Simpsons episode "Bart Star", in a flashback to Homer's time as a high-school gymnast.^{[21][importance?]}
• It was the theme of the late 1970s BBC pro-celebrity golf series "Around With Alliss" (fronted by professional golfer Peter Alliss).^{[citation needed]}
• A version of the song is played over the closing credits of the 1998 Danish film Festen (The Celebration).^{[citation needed]}