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"
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"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 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. 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, it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the week ending May 5, 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).

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.