Paper Doll

"Paper Doll" was a hit song for the Mills Brothers. In the United States it held the number-one position on the Billboard singles chart for twelve weeks,^[1] from November 6, 1943, to January 22, 1944. The success of the song represented something of a revival for the group, after a few years of declining sales. It is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.

The song has been named one of the Songs of the Century^[2] and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[3] It appeared in the films The Execution of Private Slovik and The Majestic^[4] and in the British television miniseries The Singing Detective.^[5] Four lines of it are sung by Rodolfo in the first act of Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge. It is also referenced in stage directions of the third scene of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.

The song was written in 1915 (although it was not published until 1930) by Johnny S. Black,^[6] whose greatest success would come with his song "Dardanella," which sold 5,000,000 copies in a recording by bandleader Ben Selvin in 1920, and a further 2,000,000 copies of sheet music. Black died in 1936, six years before his second greatest success, "Paper Doll," swept the country.

References

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