Music Box Dancer

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'll be playing a song called "Music Box Dancer," composed by Frank Mills. If you have heard of this song but haven't actually listened to it, this would be a great opportunity for you to check it out! Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy this song!


Listen to the song here
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Many of you have probably heard this song already; it's often taught to piano students and, according to Wikipedia, has also been used in television and movie soundtracks, and is even played on ice cream trucks. Had Music Box Dancer never become popular, we might have never discovered Frank Mills' music, as his other songs are not very well known.

We often assume that most musicians have millions of fans and are at the top of the charts, like the ones we listen to and hear about. But, our brains have selective biases, as we only consider what we know, and often don't think about the big picture.

Not every musician gets a big crowd like this one. Life is different for everyone - and from what I've heard, the life of fame and fortune comes with its own disadvantages. Image by Pexels from Pixabay

But think about it - if a musician wasn't popular, you wouldn't be as likely to listen to their music. Then, you would never know that they existed. You're more likely to find out about the popular musicians first, and then assume that they are the musicians.

As I've read, Frank Mills' career wasn't like this. Though he started performing in 1971, Music Box Dancer wasn't discovered until 1978, when his little-known record accidentally showed up at a pop station in the city of Ottawa. The program director listened to the album, wondering how it got there, and actually ended up liking the song, so he added it to the program. Before you'd know it, all of Canada was listening to this song. Music Box Dancer continued to move out of Mills' home country, and hit the top of the charts on the world stage as well.

The radio towers began broadcasting Music Box Dancer across the nation. Image by Republica from Pixabay

No music performance is perfect, however, and Mills didn't have the money to record the song again in order to fix some minor slip-ups. Perhaps this was a direct consequence of his low popularity as a musician, which could have been caused not by low music quality, but by the huge amount of competition he would have to cut through. Maybe he was making really good music, but no radio stations ever discovered it, or people didn't want to listen to it at the time.

Unlike this ballerina, Music Box Dancer will never be able to move from the box she's standing on. Image by Tú Anh from Pixabay

If it hadn't been for that Music Box Dancer recording getting to that radio station in Ottawa, you and I probably would never have known about Frank Mills. This is a great example of how mistakes can actually make good things happen in the long term.

Here is something that could make good things happen in the long term, and isn't a mistake. That is to...

Keep filling your teacup with music!

~Liya