Excited to start a new journey!!! Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. strms.net/hellofresh_diane_jennings, use my code JENNINGSOCT10 and receive 10 free meals + free breakfast for life! One breakfast item per box while subscription is active if you’re in the US. The link and code are valid in all countries and the respective local discount will apply.
I was 19 years old,in 1967 when this came out Gary Brooker is the singer,we lost Gary two years ago,he was a genius!Rest in Peace Gary,you will be missed!
Gary Brooker had one of the most powerful voices in rock. The original came out 1967, and nearly 40 years later Brooker still sang it with power and feeling. He was definitely a one off. Great voice, very talented musician.
@saxmanmike I understand your sentiment, but agree probably not in our lifetime. We will never know, though, but will future music stand the test of time like this magical, timeless song.
Never has a drunken night with friends been told so poetically.
Місяць тому+4
Sounds like they were performing on a cruise ship "I was feeling kind of seasick But the crowd called out for more. The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another dream The waiter brought a tray" Yes that sounds like a hell of a party
Gary Brooker's majestic powerful pipes were a wonder to behold. I'm so glad I drove about 6 hours a decade ago to see Gary and Procol Harum sing their classics, including this signature gem of course. Tears were welling up all over the theater. Gary still delivered it with power. So glad I finally saw this live before he passed away. I've always felt a bond or connection with this epic tune since I first heard it in the late 60s on AM radio as a kid.
Amazingly, this performance was nearly 40 years after the original recording and it still sounds fresh as the day I first heard it. It's just one of those all time classics that one never forgets.
A lot of people who weren't around in the 1960's were introduced to this song because it we used in the 1983 film "The Big Chill". The soundtrack album to this film sold very well.
I have heard this song many times. The original album version did not have the full orchestra and choir, making this an exceptional arrangement. Watching your joyful reaction on hearing this for the first time, was like exposing a friend to a favorite film, and hoping they enjoy it as much as you do. Your reaction did not disappoint.
To my ears this is the best performance of this song I've heard. I really enjoyed it when it was released, but this brings it to a whole other level for me!
The song was first released as a single in May of 1967. I started University that summer and it quickly became part of the sound track of those years for me. The lead singer here isn't Keith Reid, but Gary Brooker, who just died last year. He was in his mid-60s when he performed this live. It's one of the most beautiful version I've ever heard for such an iconic song of the late 1960s. I've always interpreted the lyrics to mean a girl was leaving her boyfriend and she had no real explanation for doing so. When asked why, she turned a whiter shade of pale but still couldn't give an answer.
This performance was in 2006, essentially 40 years after this monster song (that Paul McCartney once called the best song of all time) came out. FORTY YEARS and Gary Brooker (RIP) sounded perfect!!
Thanks for your interest in older music that so many love Diane! The '60s,/''70s/''80s was an incredible era for innovative music that will not be found again. Not just an evolution, but a revolution!
It is such a great song and so of course it was added into movie soundtracks to help evoke a whole vibe for movies set in certain decades. One especially was The Big Chill.
"Ah, Bach." Such a great performance! The song is classical music input into rock, along with gospel, soul, and psychedelic. "The Miller's Tale," referenced in the lyrics, is from Chaucer, and it's a tale of adultery.
I loved your reaction. You were really appreciating this masterpiece. Gary Brooker nailed this at 61 years old. His voice was good in 1967 when this song released, but great in this 2006 performance. You will never hear a better performance of this hit, than this one.
This was a concert, where The Danish National Symphony Orchestra did several concerts with different artists. In this case they invited Procol Harum. And they did this fine tune together. I believe the original song was released in 1967.
An incredibly emotional song. I was twelve years old when this song came out and it's as emotional now as it was then. Gary Brooker was so amazing. RIP.
I'm 66 and remember when this first came out, a beautiful, haunting and nostalgic song. This live version is a stunning masterpiece. Thank you for a great reaction. From New Zealand.
GREAT reaction Diane! RIP Gary Brooker! It's rare to have a live version surpass the studio, but here we are (IMHO) - this spectacular rendition, complete with orchestra, done almost 40 years after the original for our listening enjoyment!! I LOVE the slow introduction before we get to the organ that we know in this track! Gary's voice is sublime here. Cheers from Canada, eh!
I saw this band live with the Edmonton Philharmonic, then next day I bought the LP, and then the cassette much later....The Commitments is always a guilty pleasure... always... Thanks for playing this!
Diane . . . . that was soulfully majestic . . . . was it not ? . . . . . yes, indeed it was !!!!!!!!!!!! . . . . . . .so glad that you were able to experience this brilliant performance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Danny in Mississippi
One night I was driving home from work (late sixties) when I heard this song on the radio for the first time. It has been one of my favourites ever since .
One of the all time great songs in MUSIC history! Not an overstatement. Keith Reid was the band lyricist for the most part but did not play or sing. Gary Brooker played the piano and wrote the chords (inspired by JS Bach's "Air on a G string) and melody and sang it. Fisher came up with the organ part BUT he was also inspired by "Air on a G string" by Bach So in other words, this music was great in the early 1700s and still is today. It is simply beautiful. GREAT reaction, too!
Where A Whiter Shade of Pale is at times hauntingly beautiful, Conquistador is a very moving tale and to tell the truth I am not sure which one I like better. Thanks for mentioning it.
" I know that song!" Is the most interesting remark, because the "song" is Johann Bach's "Air" from the seventeenth century. Few American folks under 30 would even recognize it. Bravo!
Місяць тому
Air on the G String. It's a standard classic. Any trained musician knows it.
Glad you enjoyed this! Gary Brooker was the pianist/singer in Procul Harum and he set poet Keith Ried's lyrics to music. (Keith Reid never sang or played an instrument.) Gary Brooker also did the orchestral arrangements as far as I know. He's good proof that being able to read and write music doesn't have to limit your creativity. All of their albums are great!
This was an epic song in 1967 and IMO this arrangement with the Danish Orchestra elevated it to another level. The Orchestra, the backup vocals, combined with Gary's voice, piano and that awesome Hammond B3. Perfection.
I never cared what they meant. I was just one more incredible piece of music written in the 1960's. People today may want to know what it means but none of us listening to it gave a single damn about that, it was just a mesmerizing song melody and lyric. Nothing else was required. You were even reacting to it, like we did 57 years ago.
I just enjoyed the passion of the song and how it carried me off somewhere. Many years later it simply occurred to me, without thinking about it, that the phrase :- "That her face at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale" :- meant that she was deathly ill, then paled when she died. I'm not sure what that says about me.
Procol Harum is a group that I am little bit more intimately familiar with than just having listened to their music on the radio, or having bought their albums, both of which I did. I was actually in the audience when they recorded the album Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on November 18, 1971. This album became the first album with an orchestra to sell “gold" and eventually “platinum” . My important part was being one of the over 2000 people clapping, cheering in the audience. Yep, the group couldn't have done it without me. NOT. A Whiter Shade of Pale was one three songs that made me line up for tickets to see this performance. I remember hearing this song on the radio and going who the hell is this, it is so unique and beautifully haunting compared to most rock music being released at the time. I never really gave the lyrics much thought other than it was about heing and sheing described in an uniquely poetically manner. The other two songs were A Salty Dog, and Power Failure, a tune which was big on the radio just before the concert. These songs were lyrically very different from each other, and musically both innovative and classical at the same time. Conquistador was the hit single from the concert I attended. Any of these three song would be great for you to react to. I didn't remember A Whiter Shade of Pale being used in the sound track of The Commitments. A film, I love. Which would make a great movie for Twitch watch party, if you ever return to doing those. As always another great musical reaction video.
Procul Harum was named after a friend's cat. This many years later, I have tried to keep that slightly trivial thing going by naming my one-year-old feline companion Procol Harum.
Friday Hellos, Diane Yes, I have seen the "Commitments" several times by now. I actually own the VHS tape of it. You have some shades of Natalie Murphy's personality, IMO. Think I first hear this in the 80s film "The Big Chill". I though Procol Harum was more of the "customs, acceptable behavior, and regulations dealing with formality, precedence, and etiquette of the harem lifestyle.
If you're interested in checking out more "epic" music, I highly recommend Alan Parsons "Sirius/Eye In The Sky". - ua-cam.com/video/W4vd9OVLO7Q/v-deo.html
This really takes me back. I was ten years old when it first came out. Hearing it always reminds me of my childhood. I never took it to have a specific meaning. It's more impressionistic. That is, it gives you a feeling about a person, time, and place. The success of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is even more amazing when you consider that it's Procul Harum's first record. Singer Gary Brooker sounds almost the same here, at the age of 61, as he did in 1967 at the age of 22 when the song was first recorded. Many singers' voices deteriorate as they age, but his didn't. He must have taken good care of himself. You might suspect the name "Procul Harum" has some special meaning or mysterious significance, but in fact the band was named after a cat. The melody is based on "Air on the G String" by J.S. Bach. It's one of the most famous examples of a popular song based on a classic piece. Others include: - "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys, based on "Minuet in G major" by Christian Petzold (one of the pieces in the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook) - "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen, based on "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Sergei Rachmaninoff - "American Tune" by Paul Simon, based on the hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" by Hans Leo Hassler, used in "St. Matthew Passion" by J.S. Bach - " Because" by The Beatles, based on "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig van Beethoven (played backwards) - "Russians" by Sting, based on "Lieutenant Kijé Suite" by Sergei Prokofiev
Excited to start a new journey!!! Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. strms.net/hellofresh_diane_jennings, use my code JENNINGSOCT10 and receive 10 free meals + free breakfast for life! One breakfast item per box while subscription is active if you’re in the US. The link and code are valid in all countries and the respective local discount will apply.
Based on Air On a G string by Bach about a Cherabanc party gone wrong.
Too much drink.
Sung in a Percy Sledge way..percy returned the favor by doing it as a cover.
Mwtthew Fisher did write it with Brooker and Reid.
Very surprised you knew about "The Commtments" a very good movie.
When Brian Wilson, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are enthralled by your song you know you have something special.
My favorite performance of this. RIP Gary.
🥰
One of the most beautiful songs ever written.
The Canterbury Tales reference to the Miller's tale tips it in for me.
Was a massive number one worldwide in the summer of love 1967, this version will never be beaten.
That’s because the lyrics make absolutely NO sense! Great melody, lyrics all over the page.
I've literally seen this video probably 30 times, and cry every time. Simply, just beautiful.
🥰
Have you seen/ heard any of Metallica's symphonic collaborations? Very powerful. It's Metallica S&M, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
The greatest generation of rock and roll. Thanks for listening. Was one of my first 8 track albums.
A treat... Gary Brooker and Procol Harum - “Conquistador” • 1973, LIVE FILM! ua-cam.com/video/cgx2KWCV1qY/v-deo.html
I was 19 years old,in 1967 when this came out Gary Brooker is the singer,we lost Gary two years ago,he was a genius!Rest in Peace Gary,you will be missed!
Gary Brooker had one of the most powerful voices in rock. The original came out 1967, and nearly 40 years later Brooker still sang it with power and feeling. He was definitely a one off. Great voice, very talented musician.
it doesn't matter what its about, it means something different to each person. its a beautiful song and its only gotten better with age
Music like this will never be made again! And the world is much poorer because of that fact.
Amen, amen!
I cant agree with you there. Music rolls in cycles. Great music will come again. Probably not in our lifetimes though.
@saxmanmike I understand your sentiment, but agree probably not in our lifetime. We will never know, though, but will future music stand the test of time like this magical, timeless song.
C'est vrai
Never has a drunken night with friends been told so poetically.
Sounds like they were performing on a cruise ship
"I was feeling kind of seasick
But the crowd called out for more.
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another dream
The waiter brought a tray"
Yes that sounds like a hell of a party
Gary Brooker's majestic powerful pipes were a wonder to behold. I'm so glad I drove about 6 hours a decade ago to see Gary and Procol Harum sing their classics, including this signature gem of course. Tears were welling up all over the theater. Gary still delivered it with power. So glad I finally saw this live before he passed away. I've always felt a bond or connection with this epic tune since I first heard it in the late 60s on AM radio as a kid.
This song and The Animals cover of The House of the Rising Sun.
This has been one of my 3 favorite songs for 55 years! I remember it playing over the PA during one of my radiation treatments. Calmed me right down.
Aww that’s powerful
That's cool!
The melody is BACH Air On A G-String & Sleepers Wake
This song caused all of the bands playing dances at the high school gyms to add an organ to the band.
Old hippies never die, they just go to Denmark and jam with an orchestra!✌️❤️
Amazingly, this performance was nearly 40 years after the original recording and it still sounds fresh as the day I first heard it. It's just one of those all time classics that one never forgets.
I have loved this song since it came out in 1967.
A lot of people who weren't around in the 1960's were introduced to this song because it we used in the 1983 film "The Big Chill". The soundtrack album to this film sold very well.
I believe The Big Chill was the first time I heard it. You’re right, the soundtrack is amazing.
This is just an epic performance
This song is so well blended into the orchestra and his voice is great!
I really do enjoy it when new people find music I grew up with and enjoyed so much and give it the love and respect it deserves.
It's hard to find older people who still have such powerful singing voices. 🤗
That’s a really great point! It’s a muscle I guess so has the same wear out ability.
I was kind of shocked at how good his voice sounded after all these years
Perhaps David Gilmour could qualify for an older man with a great voice?
@@TrianglesAndCircles If you're talking about the voice in his fingers then definitely yes.
@@wiseman5076 I like that a lot. Not too bad on the vocals, but the strings definitely sing.
I have heard this song many times. The original album version did not have the full orchestra and choir, making this an exceptional arrangement. Watching your joyful reaction on hearing this for the first time, was like exposing a friend to a favorite film, and hoping they enjoy it as much as you do. Your reaction did not disappoint.
Aww that’s exactly what I like to hear thank you. So pleased you enjoyed it
To my ears this is the best performance of this song I've heard. I really enjoyed it when it was released, but this brings it to a whole other level for me!
Very underrated band in an era that had great, great bands.
Has been beautiful from day one till the end of time
So nice to see this generation discovering the music of their grandparents. Check out the studio recording, he never lost his voice.
There are just over 40 songs worldwide, that have sold more than 10 million copies. This is one.
We all felt the same way about this song when we first heard it on the radio. Loved your reaction!
These tunes came out in the late 60s. Oldies!
So did I 😄
The song was first released as a single in May of 1967. I started University that summer and it quickly became part of the sound track of those years for me. The lead singer here isn't Keith Reid, but Gary Brooker, who just died last year. He was in his mid-60s when he performed this live. It's one of the most beautiful version I've ever heard for such an iconic song of the late 1960s. I've always interpreted the lyrics to mean a girl was leaving her boyfriend and she had no real explanation for doing so. When asked why, she turned a whiter shade of pale but still couldn't give an answer.
Well, they don't have music like that on the radio nowadays! Thanks for not pausing!
This performance was in 2006, essentially 40 years after this monster song (that Paul McCartney once called the best song of all time) came out. FORTY YEARS and Gary Brooker (RIP) sounded perfect!!
One of the most beautiful melodies ever put down on paper...
Thanks for your interest in older music that so many love Diane! The '60s,/''70s/''80s was an incredible era for innovative music that will not be found again. Not just an evolution, but a revolution!
Totally agree about the 60s and 70s but not so much about the 80s The 80s ruined rock ‘n’ roll
Thanks for reacting to it Diane!
My pleasure!!
One of my all-time favorite bands. RIP, Gary and Keith.
It is such a great song and so of course it was added into movie soundtracks to help evoke a whole vibe for movies set in certain decades. One especially was The Big Chill.
More of a hymn than anything I ever heard in church.
I’ve enjoyed this performance too many times to count. It never fails to give me goosebumps.
"Ah, Bach."
Such a great performance! The song is classical music input into rock, along with gospel, soul, and psychedelic. "The Miller's Tale," referenced in the lyrics, is from Chaucer, and it's a tale of adultery.
MASH reference.
@@jwrockets "I'm partial to the fugue"
Get Bach, Tojo
Man with this setting and the music wish I had been there!
It's extremely rare for a cover of an exceptional song to be better than the original. He has topped himself .
The chord progression is based on Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major 'Air On The G String'.
J.S. Bach Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, Second movement "Air"
Yes, it has been used in countless movies and commercials.
Your reaction to this was so sweet and fun! What a wonderful song!!!
I loved your reaction. You were really appreciating this masterpiece. Gary Brooker nailed this at 61 years old. His voice was good in 1967 when this song released, but great in this 2006 performance. You will never hear a better performance of this hit, than this one.
5:39 gotta love a Chaucer reference
Try listening to their song "Conquistador" from the same Denmark concert.
I am lucky enough to have been born in the 1950s. This and many many more fantastic songs and music where our lives in the 60s and 70s.
Thank you for not pausing though song like so many reactions do and when they pause i switch off so grats to you.
I’ll get in a mood & end up listening to this song on repeat. It really is a great song that’s well performed.
This was a concert, where The Danish National Symphony Orchestra did several concerts with different artists. In this case they invited Procol Harum. And they did this fine tune together. I believe the original song was released in 1967.
An incredibly emotional song. I was twelve years old when this song came out and it's as emotional now as it was then. Gary Brooker was so amazing. RIP.
I'm 66 and remember when this first came out, a beautiful, haunting and nostalgic song. This live version is a stunning masterpiece. Thank you for a great reaction. From New Zealand.
GREAT reaction Diane! RIP Gary Brooker! It's rare to have a live version surpass the studio, but here we are (IMHO) - this spectacular rendition, complete with orchestra, done almost 40 years after the original for our listening enjoyment!! I LOVE the slow introduction before we get to the organ that we know in this track! Gary's voice is sublime here.
Cheers from Canada, eh!
Music is how feelings sound.
I saw this band live with the Edmonton Philharmonic, then next day I bought the LP, and then the cassette much later....The Commitments is always a guilty pleasure... always... Thanks for playing this!
I was at the Jube that night, too. Like, you, a performance that I will never forget.
Diane . . . . that was soulfully majestic . . . . was it not ? . . . . . yes, indeed it was !!!!!!!!!!!! . . . . . . .so glad that you were able to experience this brilliant performance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Danny in Mississippi
One night I was driving home from work (late sixties) when I heard this song on the radio for the first time. It has been one of my favourites ever since .
I'm an American and here is my interpretation of this song. It is beautiful musically with a haunting organ riff that is impossible to forget.
One of the all time great songs in MUSIC history! Not an overstatement. Keith Reid was the band lyricist for the most part but did not play or sing. Gary Brooker played the piano and wrote the chords (inspired by JS Bach's "Air on a G string) and melody and sang it. Fisher came up with the organ part BUT he was also inspired by "Air on a G string" by Bach
So in other words, this music was great in the early 1700s and still is today. It is simply beautiful.
GREAT reaction, too!
I've known that song my whole adult life, but this live version was amazing. Thanks Dianne!
I really enjoyed it too! 🥰
the Miller's Tale is from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Ooooo...Now listen to "Conquistadore" from that same performance
Where A Whiter Shade of Pale is at times hauntingly beautiful, Conquistador is a very moving tale and to tell the truth I am not sure which one I like better. Thanks for mentioning it.
Conquistador
I have the 45 single (Conquistador). I have to go back and listen to it again.😅
" I know that song!" Is the most interesting remark, because the "song" is Johann Bach's "Air" from the seventeenth century. Few American folks under 30 would even recognize it. Bravo!
Air on the G String. It's a standard classic. Any trained musician knows it.
Yes, but not every untrained musician knows it. The point was about Americans' limited exposure to classics. Sorry it was all too high brow for you.
@@EverendeverGroup Why American? The reactor is Irish! 🙂
@martinbynion1589 some people are members of the "hate America first" crowd. Logic is usually lost on them.
@@EverendeverGroup lol wut? You seem not to know what "highbrow" means. I can play Bach on guitar. Can you?
Glad you enjoyed this! Gary Brooker was the pianist/singer in Procul Harum and he set poet Keith Ried's lyrics to music. (Keith Reid never sang or played an instrument.) Gary Brooker also did the orchestral arrangements as far as I know. He's good proof that being able to read and write music doesn't have to limit your creativity. All of their albums are great!
This was an epic song in 1967 and IMO this arrangement with the Danish Orchestra elevated it to another level. The Orchestra, the backup vocals, combined with Gary's voice, piano and that awesome Hammond B3. Perfection.
"The Committments" is one of my dearest favorite films of all time. That film IS the reason I have a whole "soul" channel in my Pandora.
I never cared what they meant. I was just one more incredible piece of music written in the 1960's. People today may want to know what it means but none of us listening to it gave a single damn about that, it was just a mesmerizing song melody and lyric. Nothing else was required. You were even reacting to it, like we did 57 years ago.
same here .. exactly . Never was interested in the meaning of the lyrics
I just enjoyed the passion of the song and how it carried me off somewhere. Many years later it simply occurred to me, without thinking about it, that the phrase :-
"That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale"
:- meant that she was deathly ill, then paled when she died. I'm not sure what that says about me.
Your music reactions are the best.
Thank you! Aww 🥰
I really like that song! Timeless!
What a good song. I too was feeling all kinds of emotions from this song.
Totally!
Girl you need to expand your listening library. I think youd just love the 60's music. cheers from down under 🦘
This song is clearly about Chewie being the best boy. 🙂
I can't say that I know what the song is about, but I can interpret this comment to be about a long-time listener trying to earn another pin.
Hahahaha so close! Luv it
If you had said "best boi", Jason, she would have given it to you! 😅
Procol Harum is a group that I am little bit more intimately familiar with than just having listened to their music on the radio, or having bought their albums, both of which I did. I was actually in the audience when they recorded the album Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on November 18, 1971. This album became the first album with an orchestra to sell “gold" and eventually “platinum” . My important part was being one of the over 2000 people clapping, cheering in the audience. Yep, the group couldn't have done it without me. NOT. A Whiter Shade of Pale was one three songs that made me line up for tickets to see this performance.
I remember hearing this song on the radio and going who the hell is this, it is so unique and beautifully haunting compared to most rock music being released at the time. I never really gave the lyrics much thought other than it was about heing and sheing described in an uniquely poetically manner.
The other two songs were A Salty Dog, and Power Failure, a tune which was big on the radio just before the concert. These songs were lyrically very different from each other, and musically both innovative and classical at the same time. Conquistador was the hit single from the concert I attended. Any of these three song would be great for you to react to.
I didn't remember A Whiter Shade of Pale being used in the sound track of The Commitments. A film, I love. Which would make a great movie for Twitch watch party, if you ever return to doing those.
As always another great musical reaction video.
Did you claim royalties for your part?
@@lawrencedavis9246 Damn, I was just there for the music. Another time that I missed my chance to get rich.
Very cool info! Thanks
Just lovely Diane.
A great song. Never get tired of it. I used to practise playing it when I had a Hammond organ.
@@Alan-t1w2u NEVER get tired of this.
Procul Harum was named after a friend's cat. This many years later, I have tried to keep that slightly trivial thing going by naming my one-year-old feline companion Procol Harum.
Great reaction, Diane! It's sometimes surprising, but the mix of classic rock and symphonic, orchestral elements can sound really amazing!
I was 11yo when it came out - love at 1st site and still today!
Friday Hellos, Diane
Yes, I have seen the "Commitments" several times by now. I actually own the VHS tape of it. You have some shades of Natalie Murphy's personality, IMO.
Think I first hear this in the 80s film "The Big Chill". I though Procol Harum was more of the "customs, acceptable behavior, and regulations dealing with formality, precedence, and etiquette of the harem lifestyle.
If you're interested in checking out more "epic" music, I highly recommend Alan Parsons "Sirius/Eye In The Sky". - ua-cam.com/video/W4vd9OVLO7Q/v-deo.html
You should listen to the studio version from 1967. Also, there is a beautiful version (video) performed in a church.
I guess you mean the concert at the Union chapel London which for me is thier best ever
@@2011ppower - yes
"The Commitments" is such a great movie.
The lyrics are a series of semi-random bullet points put together to create a mood.
A MUST HEAR Classic,, The Stranglers "Golden Brown"..TRUST ME on this one my music lovin' sister!! 🔥❤️🔥
Your reaction at the end says it all .. A truly jaw dropping performance
I was literally speechless
This sounds better then when he first sung the song. Aging has been a blessing to his voice.
I'm 60 years old and from what I remember this band had a couple of hits in the late 70s early 80s. So............
The Commitments is a fantastic movie.
Thanks for the video 👍🏻
One of my favorite songs of all time.
I totally respect why
This is a beautiful version of this song, although it’s always been very powerful to listen to
Unreal! Maybe the most powerful we’ve listened to so far!
This really takes me back. I was ten years old when it first came out. Hearing it always reminds me of my childhood. I never took it to have a specific meaning. It's more impressionistic. That is, it gives you a feeling about a person, time, and place.
The success of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is even more amazing when you consider that it's Procul Harum's first record.
Singer Gary Brooker sounds almost the same here, at the age of 61, as he did in 1967 at the age of 22 when the song was first recorded. Many singers' voices deteriorate as they age, but his didn't. He must have taken good care of himself.
You might suspect the name "Procul Harum" has some special meaning or mysterious significance, but in fact the band was named after a cat.
The melody is based on "Air on the G String" by J.S. Bach. It's one of the most famous examples of a popular song based on a classic piece. Others include:
- "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys, based on "Minuet in G major" by Christian Petzold (one of the pieces in the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook)
- "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen, based on "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Sergei Rachmaninoff
- "American Tune" by Paul Simon, based on the hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" by Hans Leo Hassler, used in "St. Matthew Passion" by J.S. Bach
- " Because" by The Beatles, based on "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig van Beethoven (played backwards)
- "Russians" by Sting, based on "Lieutenant Kijé Suite" by Sergei Prokofiev
Great Song.
I love this song, and this arrangement is so beautiful. Thank you Diane
I always thought it reminded me of Chaucer.