A Lovers Concerto

"A Lover's Concerto" is a pop song written by American songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell and recorded in 1965 by The Toys. 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 chart at #2.

Critic Dave Thompson wrote, "Few records are this perfect. Riding across one of the most deceptively hook-laden melodies ever conceived ... 'A Lover’s Concerto' marks the apogee of the Girl Group sound."^[1] 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 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. 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. TheNotebook, 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, The Fleetwoods, Sarah Brightman, Tight Fit, Cilla Black, The Pearls, The Lennon Sisters, The Delfonics, Sarah Vaughan, The Supremes, Doyle Lawson, Mrs. Miller,Audrey Hall, The Peanuts, and Kelly Chen. Karina rendered the song in Spanish as "Concierto para enamorados" in 1966: that same year Alma Cogan 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 under the title Delight.

How gentle is the rain
That falls softly on the meadow,
Birds high up the trees
Serenade the clouds with their melodies

Oh, see there beyond the hill,
The bright colors of the rainbow.
Some magic from above
Made this day for us just to fall in love

Now, I belong to you
From this day until forever,
Just love me tenderly
And I'll give to you every part of me.

Oh, don't ever make me cry
Through long lonely nights without us.
Be always true to me,
Keep this day in your heart eternally.

One day we shall return
To this place upon the meadow.
We'll walk out in the rain,
See the birds above singing once again

Oh, you hold me in your arms,
And say once again you love me,
And if your love is true,
Everything will be just as wonderful.

You'll hold me in your arms,
And say once again you'll love me,
And if your love is true,
Everything will be just as wonderful.