100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #72 Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade of Pale

Released: 1967

There’s definitley an article written somewhere about hard luck stories and the noose of diminishing returns; many careers have been so much the better for some trial and error in their beginnings.

The group that came to be known as Procool Harum were once known as The Paramounts and at the start were contemporaries of the Stones, only to see Mick and Keef become international stars whilst they ended up backing Sandie Shaw for fifty quid a week. As they disintegrated songwriter Gary Brooker was introduced to Keith Reid, the duo hit it off artistically and after failing to attract anyone to sing their compositions, formed Procol Harum, a name they took from friend’s cat.

A Whiter Shade of Pale was their first single and employed a melody based on a Bach cantata, along with non-sequitous lyrics such as “The room was humming harder/as the ceiling flew away.” Ponderous but not without soul, that it came at comedown tempo also seemed to help, and despite it’s slightly pompou construct, Brooker and Reid had their hit.

Timing here was everything, and June 1967 represented a landmark moment in the Summer of Love. A Whiter Shade of Pale blazed an unlikely trail to the top of the charts, in the process laying the groundwork for prog rock. An ideal start? Well, the group – who would eventually operate a revolving door policy for it’s members – never scaled anything the heights of Pink Floyd, or got to ride on the coat tails of Yes or Genesis. Is it bad luck to sell ten million copies of a song you write? Many would argue differently. But for Procul Harum the golden curse was very real.