The Dells put their soulful stamp on the song in 1969 and there were minor US chart versions by Cleveland R&B group the Hesitations in 1968 and R.B. But it’s not often remembered that the first by a well-known artist was by the Everly Brothers, sounding almost unrecognizable on a track from their August 1967 album The Everly Brothers Sing.īy October that year, the Box Tops were including the song on their album The Letter/Neon Rainbow, assembled in the wake of their US chart-topping success “The Letter.” The Procol hit soon went reggae, in a reading by Alton Ellis, and before 1967 was out it had also been recorded by Noel Harrison, singer-actor son of thespian Rex, and by saxophone ace King Curtis with his group the Kingpins.Īmerican chart regular Johnny Rivers swapped Fisher’s original, expressive organ motif for piano on his cover from the 1968 album Realization. Interpretations of the song started to appear almost immediately.
It continues to be their most well-known song and a feature of concerts by the latter-day line-up. The first video was filmed on the ruins of Witley Court in Worcestershire, England. Procol’s original was a worldwide No.1 with sales of six million copies. It also leads to our look at some of the most interesting versions of the piece, written by Brooker and (as established after legal proceedings) Matthew Fisher, with the unforgettable lyrics of Keith Reid. The 2018 version of Procol’s deathless 1967 pop staple “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by singer-songwriter Dylan Menzie, from the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, underlined what an endlessly inspiring song it remains. It also shone a new spotlight on his most famous work, a song that has continued to renew itself in the decades since it was first released. (The two also own a music-publishing house called Bluebeard.)Ī pioneer in melding rock with classical music, Brooker has continued to perform with symphony orchestras: ”I’ve done concerts in Poland with orchestras and played quite a lot in Germany, including an annual televised night of rock and classics with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra.The death in 2022 of Gary Brooker, the widely-respected frontman of Procol Harum, prompted widespread appreciation of his unique skills as a singer, writer and keyboard virtuoso. In addition, the song’s lyrics were written by Reid, with whom Brooker still collaborates occasionally.
Procol harum whiter shade of pale professional#
We have an official A Whiter Shade Of Pale tab made by UG professional guitarists.Check out the tab.
Wilson, another Procol alumnus, on drums. 3 contributors total, last edit on Sep 19, 2022. One of the tracks, ”The Long Goodbye,” features Fisher on keyboards and B.J. A third album, Echoes in the Night, is due out in September. Procol Harum–the name, roughly translated from Latin, means ”beyond these things”–recorded 10 albums over the next decade, but founders Brooker and Reid were the only continuous members.Īfter the group finally broke up for good in 1977, Brooker took a year off and then undertook a solo career, playing on Eric Clapton’s Another Ticket and recording two LPs, No More Fear of Flying and Lead Me to the Water.
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