A Whiter Shade of Pale

From "You Ask The Questions" in The Independent, 8 January 2004

"What were you listening to when you were 13? Nina Harris, Edinburgh

A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harem [sic], as it was the first grown-up record I bought. I played it over and over again because it seemed to hold the key to the great mysteries of the universe..."

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And Annie Lennox interviewed (September 2004) in Rocky Mountain News

"The criteria (for covering someone else's song) is just my own fascination with a particular song. When I love a song, I can't stop singing it, can't stop listening to it," she says. "Whiter Shade of Pale is a song that went right to my bones the first time I heard it. When I enter a song, I'm exploring its bones, I'm exploring its sinews. I'm exploring every aspect of the song and I make a shape of my own within it. I know I'm talking in a funny, abstract language here ... but I'm just trying to describe what it's like to enter into a song and be transported by it."

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Thanks, Jonas

And Annie Lennox interviewed (March 2009) in  The Sunday Mail (a Scottish paper from the Mirror group)

"The first single I bought, when I was 14, was A White [sic] Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum. It's outrageously brilliant.

"That's why I recorded it on my new album. I love creating my own versions of other people's songs."

Read the whole story here

Thanks, Charlie