Law Lords have overturned previous rulings and determined that Procul Harem's 1976 hit Whiter Shade of Pale was at least partly the work of Johann Sebastian Bach from his Orchestral Suite in D Major written in the seventeen-hundreds. The famous piece, usually known as Air on a G string, has been recorded by many artists and used in advertisements, and its influence on Whiter Shade of Pale is obvious from the opening bars.
The ruling has opened the door to claims of royalties from JS Bach's estate, and it is now thought that half of all subsequent royalties will be payable.
We tracked down Mr Nigel Bach, who now lives in Reading, and asked him about the case.
"I am rather thrilled about this ruling as royalties from my ancestor's other works all dried up years ago," he told us. "Now we are going after royalties from Everything's Gonna Be Alright by Sweetbox, you know, the one where they talk all through it."
