Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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Britain's Favorite Song: A Whiter Shade of Pale

'All Things Considered' • an American response • April 2009


Sam Behrend alerts BtP to this online story from America:

Procol Harum's psychedelic classic A Whiter Shade of Pale has just been named Britain's most-played song in public places in the past 75 years, beating out Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and All I Have to Do Is Dream by The Everly Brothers. The song spent six weeks at the top of the charts when it was released in 1967. Last year, it caused an angry lawsuit over royalties involving its haunting and memorable organ solo.

There's even a new incarnation of the song by British singer Paul Potts, who won 2007's reality talent show Britain's Got Talent. Potts's new CD is full of covers of famous pop tunes, translated into Italian. He sings an adaptation called Senza Luce, or "Without Light." It's a song that raises the question: Do the lyrics possibly make any less sense in Italian than they do in English?

The picture shows Keith Reid and Tony Secunda in 1967

 


More Procol history at BtP | Most played over 75 years

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