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Frank Mills

 
Artist: Frank Mills
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

James Last & His Orchestra, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Music Boxes, Chimes & Bells, Charles Trénet, The San Sebastian Strings, The Hollyridge Strings, Virgil Fox, Hugo Montenegro, Mystic Moods Orchestra
  • Born: June 27, 1942, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Active: '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Easy Listening
  • Instrument: Piano
  • Representative Albums: "Music Box Dancer," "The Best of Frank Mills: Happy Music," "Over 60 Minutes with Frank Mills"
  • Representative Songs: "Music Box Dancer," "Happy Song," "Frank's Rag"

Biography

Canadian-born composer/pianist Frank Mills scored a minor U.S. hit in 1972 with "Love Me, Love Me Love." It wasn't until the release of "Music Box Dancer" and its subsequent success in 1979, that MIlls became more of a household name. Success was to be short-lived however, and it wasn't long before Mills was back to performing in his native Canada.

After studying music in Montreal, Mills joined the Bells in the late '60s. Although the Bells did perform some of his songs, Mills left for a solo career in 1972. Released in the same year he left the group, "Love Me, Love Me Love" was his first solo record. The single was a hit in Canada and made some headway in the U.S., reaching number 46. Although he followed the single with several minor hits in Canada, his audience continued to shrink and he was left without a record contract by 1974.

Undaunted, Mills recorded and released Music Box Dancer with his own money in the mid-'70s. In 1979, an executive at Polydor Records heard the record and believed that the title track had hit potential, so he persuaded the company to release the song as a single. "Music Box Dancer" was a surprise hit, climbing to number three on the American charts. Following the success of the single, the album was also re-released. Like the single, the album was also a hit, reaching number 21.

Mills released another album, Prelude to Romance, in the U.S. in 1981 and it was a minor hit. Nevertheless, the album wasn't big enough of a hit from him to keep his U.S. record contract and after its release, he was only left with a Canadian contract. Mills continued to record into the '90s. In the course of his career, he has released over ten albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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Actor: Frank Mills
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jan 26, 1891 in Kalamazoo, Michigan
  • Died: Aug 18, 1973 in Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: teens, '30s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Chicago After Midnight
  • First Major Screen Credit: Chicago After Midnight (1928)

Biography

No relation to stage actor Frank Mills (1870-1921), character actor Frank Mills made his film debut in 1928. Though usually unbilled, Mills was instantly recognizable in such films as Golddiggers of 1933, King Kong (1933) and Way Out West (1937), to mention but a few. He played reporters, photographers, barkers, bartenders, bums, cabbies, kibitzers, soldiers, sailors...in short, he played just about everything. In addition to his feature-film appearances, he showed up with frequency in short subjects, especially those produced by the Columbia comedy unit between 1935 and 1943. As late as 1959, Frank Mills was popping up in bits and extra roles in such TV series as Burns and Allen and Lassie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Frank Mills
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For other uses, see Frank Mills (disambiguation).

Frank Mills (born June 27, 1942), is a Canadian pianist and recording artist, best known for his solo instrumental hit "Music Box Dancer".

Mills grew up in Verdun, Quebec[1] and started playing piano at age 3. He briefly attended McGill University[1] and in the late 1960s became a member of The Bells. He left the band in 1971 just as it was about to have international success with the single "Stay Awhile."

Mills worked as a pianist for CBC-TV[1] and recorded his first solo album, Seven Of My Songs, which produced the hit single "Love Me, Love Me Love." The song made its debut on the Canadian charts in October 1971 and early the following year peaked at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart[2] His followup single, a cover of Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" made Top 25 in Canada but stalled at #106 in the U.S.

Mills released an album in 1974 that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not a hit initially. 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, but a copy was sent in error to CFRA-AM, a pop station in Ottawa. The program director played the A-side and couldn't figure out why it had been sent to his station, so he played the B-side to see if the record was mistakenly marked. He liked "Music Box Dancer" and added it to his station's playlist, turning the record into a Canadian hit. Iconic Ottawa Valley radio personality Dave "50,000" Watts gave the record extensive airplay on the station.[3] The album went gold in Canada, which prompted Polydor in the US to release the album and single. In Nashville, news producer Bob Parker at WNGE-TV began playing the song over the closing credits of the newscast. Nashville DJs quickly latched on and both the single and album were hits. The single reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart[4], while the album reached #21 on the Billboard Top Album chart [5] and also went gold. Polydor awarded a gold record to TV station WNGE for breaking the single in the U.S.

It was Mills' only U.S. Top 40 pop hit; the follow-up, another piano instrumental titled "Peter Piper", peaked at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart[6]. Mills managed one final Adult Contemporary chart entry, "Happy Song", which peaked at #41 at the beginning of 1981[7].

Mills won two Juno Awards in 1980 for "Peter Piper", one for Composer of the Year and one for Instrumental Artist of the Year. He again won in the latter category in 1981.

He continued to release albums until the early 1990s, but has now retired from the music business.

Contents

Sheet music

Music Box Dancer

The sheet music version of "Music Box Dancer" has sold in excess of 3 million copies. It is published by Music Box Dancer Publications which is a subsidiary of Mayfair Montgomery Publishing.

Other

  • Somewhere a Child Is Sleeping: A Christmas Song (SATB with Piano)

Film and television appearances

"Music Box Dancer" has been heard on an episode of The Simpsons and in the Kill Bill movies. It was used as the theme tune to the BBC2 golf programme, A Round with Alliss.

There is a song in the musical Hair called Frank Mills, although the number has nothing to do with this artist.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Frank Mills," The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia
  2. ^ [Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002; Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993]
  3. ^ [American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, March 10, 1979]
  4. ^ [Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002; Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993]
  5. ^ [The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Albums, 3rd ed.]
  6. ^ [Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002; Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993]
  7. ^ [Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993]

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frank Mills".  Read more