Procol Harum Week: A Whiter Shade of Pale

Head Full of Snow’s 100th post coincides with the launch of Procol Harum Week. It’s almost as though I planned it that way. And where else would one kick off a Procol Harum Week than at the moment in time where it all began? The debut single that has gone on to be named the UK’s “most played record ever”.

Whether you love or hate it, there’s no denying that if at some point over the last 42 years you’ve heard a bit of music, there’s more chance of it being ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ than anything else.

Though not their best song, it managed to capture a moment in the summer of 1967 when, if you were fortunate enough not to have to work for a living and bought into the whole flower power freedom movement, anything seemed possible. The fact it caught on with the mainstream too, quickly elevated AWSoP to the legendary stature it enjoys today.

Its phenomenal success was not solely down to it being a damn fine song. A spot of canny marketing saw the disc released to a pirate radio station first (Radio London), creating a deluge of interest. The single was given an immediate, yet limited, release of 1000 copies, further stoking public enthusiasm for something not everyone had the chance of getting their hands on. When the enormous demand was finally met, record stores in the UK were seen with makeshift signs in the window declaring “A WHITER SHADE OF PALE AVAILABLE HERE”, and the record hit the top spot of the singles charts on June 10th 1967.

Since then ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ has gone on to be both a blessing and a curse to the group. A blessing in that it has made Gary Brooker (vocalist and songwriter) and Keith Reid (the band’s behind the scenes lyricist) a ton of cash. And a curse in that Procol Harum could never shake free of its considerable presence. Despite going on to produce ten albums in ten years, some people will only ever think of them as a one hit wonder.

Court cases aside – Hammond organist Matthew Fisher won a claim to a percentage of the royalties in 2009 – ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ remains to this day a stone cold classic of psychedelia.

Enough of my nonsense, behold the beast!

‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ appears as a bonus track on the 40th Anniversary reissue of Procol Harum’s debut album, available from Amazon.co.uk

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music vid, psych-pop, psychedelic rock, song reviews