A lover's concerto
| A lover's concerto | |
|---|---|
| The Toys | |
| publication | August 24, 1965 |
| length | 2:36 |
| Genre (s) | Pop rock |
| Author (s) | Sandy Linzer / Denny Randell |
| Publisher (s) | DynoVoice Records |
| Award (s) | Gold record , BMI award |
| album | The Toys Sing "A Lover's Concerto" And "Attack" |
A Lover's Concerto is the title of a piece of music in the style of pop-rock published by the American girl group The Toys in 1965 .
History of origin
The three girls met at Woodrow Wilson High School in Jamaica , New York State , where they sang together as a group. They came into contact with the record expert Vince Mark, who was impressed by her talents. He contacted the authors Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, who developed an adaptation based on the minuet in G major by Johann Sebastian Bach . At first Bach was considered a composer , but in 1970 musicologists ascribed the minuet to Christian Petzold , which Anna Magdalena Bach had taken over into her music book in 1725 ( BWV Appendix 114 ). Randell grew up listening to the tune already released by tenor saxophonist Freddy Martin under the title A Lover's Concerto (recorded December 27, 1941).
The trio of girls called themselves The Toys and received a recording contract with the independent label DynoVoice Records, founded in December 1964 by the music producer Bob Crewe . A Lover's Concerto was supposed to be the label 's ninth single and the first of the toys.
Parts of the song were written in July / August 1965 in the Olmstead Recording Studios in New York City , others in the Bell Sound Recording Studios , which also did the mastering . Music producer Charlie Calello put in a melody-leading brass section, the guitar riffs were done by Ralph Casale, one of the most important session musicians in New York at the time. While the minuet was written in ¾ time , the adaptation is written in 4/4 time. The song itself does not appear in the lyrics .
Publication and Success
The single A Lover's Concerto / The Night (DynoVoice # 209) was released on August 24, 1965. On October 30, 1965, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 , where it remained for 3 weeks. The Beatles prevented the number one hit status with Yesterday and then the Rolling Stones with Get Off of My Cloud . In the music magazine Cashbox , however, they reached the one week the first rank . On October 28, 1965, the toys sang the song in the TV music program "Shindig!" The hit received the gold record on December 17, 1965, which was also awarded a BMI award. In total, A Lover's Concerto sold over 2 million copies and is a successful example of paraphrases in pop music .
Cover versions
There are at least 30 cover versions . The German version by Alma Cogan was one of the first to appear in November 1965 under the title So it starts always beginning (German text: Phil Walker). In English it followed Quincy Jones (December 1965), The Fleetwoods (December 1965), Supremes (LP I Hear A Symphony ; February 1966), Floyd Cramer (February 1966), Carla Thomas (LP Comfort Me ; March 1966), Mrs. Miller (April 1966), Cilla Black (April 1966), Bob Crewe Generation (February 1967) or Delfonics (June 1968).