The Story Behind “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum

There are few songs as nostalgic and iconic as Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. The song’s iconic Hammond organ intro instantly brings you back to the 1960s, when “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was one of the biggest hits of the Summer of Love. The single sounds just as good nearly six decades later, making it one of the most enduring songs of all time. In this article, we’ll dive into the story, meaning, and legacy behind the song.

The Story Behind the Song

“A Whiter Shade of Pale” was musically written by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher, and lyrically written by Keith Reid. Before Procol Harum, Gary Brooker was part of the English formation The Paramounts. But after the group’s disbandment, he decided to quit performing and focus on songwriting exclusively.

As a result, producer Guy Stevens introduced Brooker to lyricist Keith Reid. Together they started writing songs for other artists. But after months of writing, and zero interest from other artists, the two decided to record their own material. It marked the birth of Procol Harum.

“A Whiter Shade of Pale” was the band’s debut single. The starting point of the song was a party Keith Reid attended. He overheard a conversation where someone said to a woman: “You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale”. The phrase stuck with him.

“I had the phrase ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale,” Reid told Uncut magazine. “That was the start, and I knew it was a song. It’s like a jigsaw where you’ve got one piece, then you make up all the others to fit in.”

“I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene.”

During the same time, Gary Brooker was composing the music of the song. He gained some interest in classical music and jazz, and created a musical idea around Bach’s “Air on a G String”.

“After about the first two bars (of ‘Air on a G String’) I didn’t remember where it went”, Gary Brooker said in an interview. “But I just carried on in my own way. Then I wrote this sequence, which had a bit of a Bach-like melody over the top.”

“I think it was about then that an envelope arrived – that morning or something. I opened it and it was some new lyrics from Keith. And the first one I opened was “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.

Brooker reportedly finished the rough draft of the song in a matter of 30 minutes. Inspired by Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Brooker started looking for an organ player with a Hammond organ (which was rare at the time). He eventually stumbled upon an advertisement in the Melody Maker, where Hammond player Matthew Fisher was looking for jobs.

“When I joined Procol the others had already been rehearsing it (‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’) for a while”, Fisher said. “The original four-verse version took around ten minutes to play. And in between were these instrumental bits which Gary and I used to take turns to play. We just improvised at that point.”

When it was time to record the song, the band decided to drop 2 verses, which significantly dropped the song’s length. It was also decided Fisher would play the instrumental bits. He started to create real pieces out of his improvisation, and ended up with what’s now known as the most iconic Hammond organ intro of all time.

The band eventually recorded “A Whiter Shade of Pale” at Olympic Sound Studios in London. The song was finished in just two takes. The rest is history.

The Meaning of the Song

Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” tells a girl-leaves-boy story. The lyrics are heavily inspired by film and art.

“I used to go and see a lot of French films in the Academy in Oxford Street (London),” Keith Reid told Uncut. “Pierrot Le Fou made a strong impression on me, and Last Year In Marienbad… “You can draw a line between the narrative fractures and mood of those French films and ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale.”

Reid was also heavily inspired by surrealist art, mainly Salvador Dalí. “I like the song to feel like a Dalí painting looks. You know, clocks dissolving, and just fantastical things.”

It’s also rumored the song has no clear storyline and is just a series of abstract and poetic images, presenting elements of pleasure, confusion, mystery, and emotional turmoil. This theory is supported by the enigmatic aura of the song.

The Song’s Legacy

“A Whiter Shade of Pale” was released as a single on 12 May, 1967. The song was a massive hit and topped the charts worldwide. The single wasn’t promoted in the US, but nevertheless reached number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. “A Whiter Shade of Pale” would eventually sell over 10 million copies worldwide.

Other musicians were also extremely impressed when they heard “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, including the Beatles’ Paul McCartney and John Lennon. McCartney reportedly heard the song for the first time the same night met his future wife Linda McCartney.

“It was the first evening any of us had ever heard a record called ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ with words about feeling seasick”, McCartney wrote in Many Years From Now. “The lyrics were all very strange and poetic and the theme was a famous Bach theme but we didn’t know that. We just thought, God, what an incredible record! It was sort of a marker record. It was a benchmark.”

In 1977, the song was named ‘The Best British Pop Single 1952-1977’, together with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Oddly enough, both songs contain the rather unusual word ‘fandango’.

Nearly six decades after its release, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” has proven to be a timeless record. It’s almost weird how a song can instantly draw you back to the 1960s, while simultaneously being one of the most enduring singles ever released. Maybe that’s the exact power of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.