Here I had that line ‘ A Whiter Shade of Pale’. Reid reflected: “The songwriting process is a funny one, like making a pot…you get your initial idea. Turning it into a song lyric meant exploring and creating a whole world around it. Reid credits the now-famous title line to a chance moment in which he overheard someone say “you’ve gone a whiter shade of pale” and the phrase had intrigued him. “A White Shade of Pale” seems to have been one of the songs that Brooker and Reid had written before the formation of Procol Harum. But while the band was still trying to put together this original lineup, their demo recording caught the attention of producer Danny Cordell who brought them into the studio to create their iconic debut single “A Whiter Shade of Pale” Other founding members included Ray Royer, Matthew Fisher and Bobby Harrison. It just became obvious that the only thing to do was form a group.” Bassist Dave Knights soon joined the pair, answering an ad Brooker and Reid had placed in the back of Melody Maker.
Reid explained: “We didn’t try for very long. Amazed at the ease with which he could write to Reid’s words, Brooker reached out to the lyricist and the pair began writing songs together a couple of days a week.Īt first, the pair thought they would sell their songs to other artists and groups, but eventually settled on forming their own group. I think I read them but didn’t do anything about them for a while.” After several months, Brooker finally sat down at the piano with Reid’s lyrics and immediately wrote three songs.
Whiter shade of pale full#
‘Why don’t you put some music to them?’ What made Guy think of that, I don’t know, because I had never written any music….Anyway, I went home with this envelope full of words from Keith. “One afternoon I was over at Guy’s place and Keith was there and we were introduced to each other….Guy said to me. In 1966, The Paramount’s pianist and vocalist Gary Brooker was introduced to lyricist Keith Reid by Island Records’ Guy Stevens.
Procol Harum emerged from an English beat group called The Paramounts whose hit single “Poison Ivy” (a cover of the Leiber and Stoller song) had reached No. The song kicked off the summer of love in England with its melancholy, psychedelic sound world and soulful performance. In 1967, Procol Harum was still in the process of putting together it’s original line-up when it got the chance to record its first single, “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Two weeks later, they had the number 1 hit in the UK and shortly after it was dominating the charts through Europe and the US.
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