"A Lover's Concerto" is a pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 written by American songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

s Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell

Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell

Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell are American songwriters who wrote numerous pop and rock songs in the 1960s and 1970s, generally working together and with Bob Crewe...

 and recorded in 1965 by The Toys

The Toys

The Toys were an American pop girl group from Jamaica, New York, which was formed in 1961 and disbanded in 1968.-Members:The trio consisted of:* Barbara Harris sang lead most of the time....

. Their version of the song was a major hit in both the United States and the UK during 1965. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart at #2.

Critic Dave Thompson wrote, "Few records are this perfect. Riding across one of the most deceptively hook-laden

Hook (music)

A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...

 melodies ever conceived ... 'A Lover’s Concerto' marks the apogee of the Girl Group

Girl group

A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...

 sound." The song also had an unusual structure that blurred the differences between its verses and choruses.

The lyrics begin with:

How gentle is the rain

That falls softly on the meadow,

Birds high up in the trees

Serenade the flowers with their melodies

Linzer and Randell based the melody on the familiar "Minuet in G major" (BWV Anh. 114) from J.S. Bach's

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach

Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach

The title Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife Anna Magdalena...

. One key difference is that the "Minuet in G major" is written in 3/4 time, whereas "A Lover's Concerto" is arranged in 4/4 time. (Although often attributed to Bach himself, the "Minuet in G major" is now believed to have been written by Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold was a German composer and organist. He was active primarily in Dresden, and achieved a high reputation during his lifetime, but his surviving works are few...

. The Notebook, a gift from Bach to his second wife Anna, begins with works by Bach, but also included many blank pages, onto which members of the family copied works that they liked to play; the famous minuets in G major and G minor are not in Bach's handwriting.)

In subsequent years, "A Lover's Concerto" has been recorded by numerous other artists, including Perrey and Kingsley

Perrey and Kingsley

The musical duo Perrey and Kingsley are pioneers in the field of electronic music. Before their collaboration, starting in 1965, electronic music was considered to be purely avant-garde...

, The Fleetwoods

The Fleetwoods

The Fleetwoods were a singing trio from Olympia, Washington, United States; formed in the late 1950s. They were responsible for eleven hit songs, beginning with "Come Softly to Me"...

, Sarah Brightman

Sarah Brightman

Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...

, Tight Fit

Tight Fit

Tight Fit are a British pop group who had a number of hits in the early 1980s, including a UK No.1 with their cover version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1982...

, Cilla Black

Cilla Black

Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...

, The Pearls

The Pearls

The Pearls were a 1970s girl vocal duo from Liverpool, England, featuring Lyn Cornell and Ann Simmons. They released a number of singles, the most successful being "Guilty", which reached #10 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974.-Career:...

, The Lennon Sisters

The Lennon Sisters

The Lennon Sisters are a singing group consisting of four siblings: Dianne , Peggy , Kathy , and Janet . They were all born in Los Angeles, California of German/Irish and Mexican ancestry. The original quartet were the eldest four in a family of twelve siblings...

, The Delfonics

The Delfonics

The Delfonics are a pioneering Philadelphia soul singing group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include "La-La ", "Didn't I ", "Break Your Promise," "I'm Sorry," and "Ready or Not Here I Come "...

, Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

, The Supremes

The Supremes

The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...

, Doyle Lawson

Doyle Lawson

Doyle Lawson is an American bluegrass and gospel musician. Doyle is best known as an accomplished mandolin player, vocalist, producer, and leader of the 5-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.-Biography:...

, Mrs. Miller

Mrs. Miller

Elva Ruby Connes Miller , who recorded under the name Mrs. Miller, was an American singer who gained some fame in the 1960s for her series of shrill and off-key renditions of then-popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto" and "Downtown".Singing in an untrained,...

, Audrey Hall

Audrey Hall

-Biography:Hall began her career singing with Dandy Livingstone in the duo Dandy & Audrey. They recorded the song "Morning Side of the Mountain" in 1969, the success of which led to an album of the same name. They released a second album on the Trojan label, I Need You. Livingstone also produced...

, The Peanuts

The Peanuts

is a Japanese vocal group consisting of twin sisters Emi Itō and Yumi Itō . They were born in Tokoname, Aichi, on April 1, 1941; soon after their birth, the family moved to Nagoya....

, and Kelly Chen

Kelly Chen

Kelly Chen is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. Kelly has also been known as a diva in Asia. She has a great success in Asia Entertainment industry with nearly 20 million record sales of 38 albums...

. Karina rendered the song in Spanish as "Concierto para enamorados" in 1966: that same year Alma Cogan

Alma Cogan

Alma Cogan was an English singer of traditional pop music in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed "The Girl With the Laugh/Giggle/Chuckle In Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era...

 made a German translation of "A Lover's Concerto": " So Fängt Es Immer An" - her final recording - and also Kai Lind recorded the Finnish rendering ""Aamukonsertto". It was also covered in Japanese by the group SA

SA (Samurai Attack)

SA is a Japanese punk rock band. Their style of music has been described as Oi! Punk....

under the title Delight.