<P> Allan Moore notes "a certain family resemblance" that "creates the sense of (Bach's) music without actually quoting it ." The similarity is also referred to humorously in the 1982 play The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard and in the 1991 film The Commitments . Other writers have noted similar "family resemblances" to other works by Bach: the Sinfonia which opens the cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156, the organ chorale Prelude "O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde groß" (O Man, Lament Your Sin So Great), BWV 622, from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) and the Cantata Sleepers Wake, BWV140 . </P> <P> The music also borrows ideas from "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge . </P> <P> The single was released on 12 May 1967 in the United Kingdom by Deram Records and entered Record Retailer's chart (later the UK Singles Chart) on 25 May . In two weeks it reached number 1, where it stayed for six weeks . Writing in 2005, Jim Irvin of Mojo said that its arrival at number 1 on 8 June 1967, on the same day that the Beatles' Sgt . Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band topped the national albums chart, marked the start of the Summer of Love in Britain . </P> <P> According to music journalist and author Harvey Kubernik, in the context of the Summer of Love, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was the "one song (that) stood above all others, its Everest - like status conferred by no less than John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who were enthralled by the Chaucerian wordplay and heavenly Baroque accompaniment". Kubernik also writes that, amid the search for higher consciousness during the flower power era, the song "galvanised a congregation of disaffected youth dismissive of traditional religion but anxious to achieve spiritual salvation". In his 1981 article on the musical and societal developments of 1967, for The History of Rock, sociomusicologist Simon Frith described "A Whiter Shade of Pale" as the year's "most distinctive single", through its combination of "white soul vocal and a Bach organ exercise" and enigmatic lyrics that "hinted at a vital secret open only to people in the right, drug - determined, state of mind". </P>

Who sang the song whiter shade of pale