In 2018, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the band’s ballad «A Whiter Shade of Pale» — which has spawned more than 1,000 cover versions — into its Singles category.
The voice behind the 1967 classic “A Whiter Shade of Pale” has died. Gary Brooker, frontman for British prog-rockers Procol Harum, died at his home following a battle with cancer on Feb.19, according to a statement from the band. He was 76. “Gary’s voice and piano were the single defining constant of Procol’s fifty-year international concert career. Without any stage antics or other gimmicks he was invariably the most watchable musician in the show,” the statement says. Brooker, born May 29, 1945 in London, founded Procol Harum in 1966 with songwriter Keith Reid after the breakup of his first band, The Paramounts, which enjoyed fleeting success with the 1965 song, “Poison Ivy.” Procol Harum’s debut single, the woozy, organ-drenched “A White Shade of Pale,” sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and topped the charts in the U.
