Paper Doll (song)

"Paper Doll" was a hit song for the Mills Brothers. In the United States it would be the Billboard Hot 100 number one hit for twelve weeks, [David A. Jasen, "A Century of American Popular Music" (Taylor & Francis, 2002), [http://books.google.com/books?id=6szF5VprkHAC&pg=PA155&dq=%22Paper+Doll%22+%22Johnny+S.+Black%22&sig=ACfU3U1RkhdH1z_MygO3xlbOT6rL0zlJOw p. 155] ,] 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.

The song has been named as one of the Songs of the Century. It appeared in the films "The Execution of Private Slovik" and "The Majestic" [The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation, " [http://www.vocalgroup.org/inductees/mills_brothers.html The Mills Brothers] ".] and in the British television miniseries "The Singing Detective". [Stephanie Zacharek, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E2DB113BF933A15757C0A9659C8B63 A Singing Detective Plays It Again] ", "New York Times", 20 April 2003.] Four lines of it are sung by Rodolfo in the first act of Arthur Miller's play "A View from the Bridge".

The song was written in 1915 by Johnny S. Black, 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.

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