When it was released as a single in May 1967, Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale proved an immediate sensation in that year of psychedelia and Sgt Pepper. Gary Brooker, who sang it in his expressively blues-inflected voice and wrote the music to accompany Keith Reid’s lyrics, described how he had been influenced by Jacques Loussier’s interpretation of JS Bach’s Air from his Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major.
“The original Hamlet cigar commercial featuring Air on a G String had always been a favourite of ours,” said Brooker, who has died of cancer aged 76. “When the guy lit up the cigar everything just went cool.” But A Whiter Shade of Pale was not just cool, but also stately and mysterious and determined not to give up its secrets easily. Matthew Fisher’s haunting Hammond organ theme seemed to impart an aura of infinite wistfulness.
