a whiter shade of pale

 Procol Harum had a worldwide smash with this mystical organ-driven Baroque fandango.  These fancy cats recorded 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' during their first session at Olympic Studios in London with producer Denny Cordell and engineer Keith Grant. The band included Gary Brooker on vocals and piano, Matthew Fisher on a Hammond M-102 organ, David Knights on bass, Ray Royer on guitar, and session drummer Bill Eyden.   The band recorded another version later that week with their new drummer Bobby Harrison; but the original version was preferred.  

Lyricist Keith Reid says:  "It was essentially live recording...Originally it was twice as long...I feel with songs that you're given a piece of the puzzle, the inspiration or whatever. In this case, I had that title, "Whiter Shade of Pale," and I thought, There's a song here. And it's making up the puzzle that fits the piece you've got. You fill out the picture, you find the rest of the picture that that piece fits into...It's sort of a film, really, trying to conjure up mood and tell a story. It's about a relationship. There's characters and there's a location, and there's a journey. You get the sound of the room and the feel of the room and the smell of the room. But certainly there's a journey going on, it's not a collection of lines just stuck together. It's got a thread running through it."

Gary Brooker remembers: "I'd been listening to a lot of Classical music, and Jazz. Having played Rock and R&B for years, my vistas had opened up. When I met Keith, seeing his words, I thought, 'I'd like to write something to that.' They weren't obvious, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to know what he means, as long as you communicate an atmosphere. 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' seemed to be about two people, a relationship even. It's a memory. There was a leaving, and a sadness about it. To get the soul of those lyrics across vocally, to make people feel that, was quite an accomplishment.  I remember the day it arrived: four very long stanzas, I thought, 'Here's something.' I happened to be at the piano when I read them, already playing a musical idea. It fitted the lyrics within a couple of hours. Things can be gifted. If you trace the chordal element, it does a bar or two of Bach's 'Air on a G String' before it veers off. That spark was all it took. I wasn't consciously combining Rock with Classical, it's just that Bach's music was in me."

Released in May of 1967, it took two weeks for 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' to reach number one in the UK, where it stayed for six weeks.  In the US, it peaked at number five and sold over one million copies. In the Netherlands it entered the chart at number one in June and went back to number one a month later.  It also hit the top of the charts in Australia, Germany, and Ireland.  Writing credit is shared by Gary Brooker, Keith Reid, and Matthew Fisher.  Fisher won credit for his famous organ riff after suing for royalties forty-two years later.  He said:  "This has been a long, painful ordeal for me and my family and I am glad that whatever the verdict, this case is now over."








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We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale