Stanley Mills, music publisher who popularized 'The Chicken Dance', dies at 91

Stanley Mills, a member of the prosperous Mills Music family publishing dynasty that popularized "The Chicken Dance" as a wedding and party staple, died Dec. 29 at a hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He was 91.

Mills was the son of famed music publisher Jack Mills, who had golden ears for signing artists such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Leroy Anderson and many more as their songwriting careers blossomed in the 1920s and 1930s.

Born in 1931, Stanley Mills grew up to join the family business in New York. He stayed with the company for two years after Mills Music was sold to EMI Music Publishing in 1964. He worked for another music publisher, E.B. Marks, for a few years before going freelance in 1968 with the launch of September Music and Galahad Music.

According to the Mills family obituary:

"Mills built its catalog from the ground up, one song at a time, through relationships with songwriters he had worked with over the years like Paul Evans and Paul Parnes ("Happiness Is") and Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee ("End Of The World"). walked from publisher to publisher, literally across the hall, trying to make a deal.Focusing on MOR (Middle-Of-The-Road) and later county music songs, Stanley experienced the success with hits like "My Melody Of Love" and Bobby Vinton's "Darlin" recorded by David Rogers, Tom Jones and Bonnie Raitt.Perhaps his most famous contribution to popular music in America and around the world was his introduction years ago to what is arguably the most popular party song of all time, "The Chicken Dance".

Mills' promoted the obscure and cheerful polka tune designed to accompany large bands of people doing a chicken dance style complete with flapping arms, copious tail shakes and hand movements. Mills saw the fun it brought at weddings and the like, and spent decades tirelessly promoting music for film, television, and commercials. By the 1990s, "The Chicken Dance" had reached critical mass, as noted in the story.

Mills sold his publishing companies to Memory Lane Music in 2015. He served as a board member of Directors of the National Professional Organization of the Music Publishers Association and Harry Fox Agency for 30 years.

His survivors include sons Kenneth Mills of Plantation, Florida, and Mitchell Mills of Woodmere, N.Y. He is also survived by his nephew Joshua Mills, music manager and publicist in Los Angeles; Peter Alpert and Trish Alpert of Long Island; and five grandchildren.

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