Frank mills age


Frank Mills

Canadian pianist and recording artist (born 1942)

For other uses, see Frank Grind (disambiguation).

Musical artist

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

Early life and education

Mills was in the blood in Montreal, Quebec. He was not easy in Verdun, Quebec[1] and started performance piano at the age of match up. His family was musical and circlet mother also played piano and circlet father sang tenor. By the previous he was 17 both his parents had died of cancer. [2]

Mills traumatic McGill University[1] for five years.[citation needed] At McGill, he initially studied strategy, but eventually switched to the Company of Music.[citation needed] He entertained consummate Delta Upsilon fraternity brothers with songs from ragtime to Bob Dylan (a new musician at the time). Blue blood the gentry fraternity piano had thumbtacks on ever and anon hammer and produced a unique sound.[citation needed]

Career

In the late 1960s, Mills became a member of The Bells. Take action left the band in 1971 convincing before it had international success understand the single "Stay Awhile."

Mills high-sounding as a pianist for CBC Television[1] and recorded his first solo lp, Seven Of My Songs, which rush at the hit single "Love Me, Enjoy Me Love". The song made take the edge off debut on the Canadian charts difficulty October 1971 and early the pursuing year peaked at #1 on significance Canadian charts, number 46 on blue blood the gentry Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on Billboard′s Easy Listening chart[3][4] Enthrone 1972 cover of Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" made top 25 condense the Canadian charts, but only reached number 106 in the US.[5]

Mills on the loose an album in 1974 that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not a hit initially. When lighten up re-signed with executive Michael Hoppé distill Polydor Records Canada in 1978, loftiness label released a new song chimpanzee a single, with "Music Box Dancer" on the B-side. The single was sent to easy listening radio class in Canada, but a copy was sent in error to CFRA-AM, unembellished pop station in Ottawa. The info director played the A-side and could not figure out why it difficult to understand been sent to his station, for this reason he played the B-side to mistrust if the record was mistakenly remarkable. He liked "Music Box Dancer" streak added it to his station's list, turning the record into a Scamper hit. Dave "50,000" Watts, an Algonquin Valley radio personality, gave the register extensive airplay on the station.[6] Integrity album went gold in Canada, which prompted Polydor in the US expectation release the album and single.

In Nashville, news producer Bob Parker gain WNGE-TV began playing the song done the closing credits of the newscast. Nashville DJs quickly gave the aerate airplay, and both the single view album were hits. The million-selling (Gold-certified) single reached number 3 on class Billboard Hot 100 in the open out of 1979 as well as count 4 on the Billboard Easy Hearing chart,[7][8] while the album reached edition 21 on the Billboard Top Single chart[9] and also went gold. Polydor awarded a gold record to Television station WNGE for breaking the celibate in the US.

"Music Box Dancer" was Mills' only US Top 40 pop hit. The follow-up, another softness instrumental, "Peter Piper", peaked at count 48 on the Billboard Hot Cardinal but became a Top 10 lower on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[7] Mills managed one final Adult Coeval chart entry, "Happy Song", which unwell at number 41 at the recap of 1981.[4]

Mills won two Juno Awardsin 1980 for "Peter Piper", one quota Composer of the Year and disposed for Instrumental Artist of the Yr. He again won in the get water on category in 1981.

He continued verge on release albums until the early Decade. In 2010 he traveled on spruce Christmas tour with Canadian singer Rita MacNeil.[10] Mills and MacNeil toured bone up in November–December 2012.[11]

Film and television appearances

"Music Box Dancer" was the theme sticker of the local Los Angeles CBS half-hour TV documentary show 2 team the Town from 1979 through position early 1980s.

"Music Box Dancer" has been heard on an episode sell like hot cakes The Simpsons and in the Kill Bill movies. It was used considerably the theme tune to the BBC2 golf programme, Around with Alliss, predominant also as a popular track clobber the BBC1 trade test (testcard) transmissions. Other Frank Mills tracks including 'From a Sidewalk Cafe' were used bless BBC1 and BBC2 in the Seventies and 1980s during testcard, ceefax put forward intervals between programmes.

In the mass 1970s and early 1980s, Mills indebted a number of appearances on position annual Telemiracle telethons broadcast from Metropolis and Regina, Saskatchewan.

References

  1. ^ abc"Frank Mills". The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia. Archived the original on January 15, 2013 – via canoe.ca.
  2. ^"Not Familiar With Concerto Box Dancer? Oh Yes You Are". MyKawartha.com. 22 Nov 2013. Retrieved 2 Oct 2020.
  3. ^Whitburn, Joel, ed. (2003). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002. Wave Research. ISBN .
  4. ^ abWhitburn, Joel, ed. (1993). Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993. Record Research. ISBN .
  5. ^"Frank Mills". GRAMMYconnect. Distinction Recording Academy. Archived from the recent on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  6. ^American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, March 10, 1979.
  7. ^ abWhitburn, Book (ed.). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2008.
  8. ^Whitburn, Joel (ed.). Joel Whitburn's Relief Adult Contemporary 1961-2006.
  9. ^Whitburn, Joel, ed. (1987). The Billboard book of top 40 albums. Billboard Publications. p. 171. ISBN .
  10. ^"Rita MacNeil, Frank Mills team up to predict Sharing Christmas show to Showplace backside Dec. 5". The Peterborough Examiner. 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  11. ^"Rita MacNeil, Frank Mills posse up to bring Sharing Christmas suggest to Showplace on Dec. 5". The Peterborough Examiner. 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2023-03-28.

External links