A Whiter Shade of Pale

Keith Reid wrote the words and Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher the music; original credits named only Brooker and Reid, and Fisher's co-authorship was established in 2009. It was released as a UK single on Deram, catalog DM 126, with "Lime Street Blues" on the B-side, on May 12, 1967 by Wikipedia and May 19 by another source. Denny Cordell produced it at Olympic Studios in London in April 1967 in two takes with no overdubbing; a later re-recording with Bobby Harrison at Advision was discarded. Brooker sings and plays piano, Fisher plays the Hammond M-102 organ, Ray Royer plays guitar, David Knights bass and Bill Eyden, a session player, drums; Mojo says Eyden played because Harrison had flu. Fisher's organ line is said to derive from Bach's Air on a G String, though a fan-site contributor notes the claim is slightly inaccurate.

Reid told Uncut in February 2008 that he was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward story, and that books rather than drugs influenced him. It was number 1 in the UK for six weeks from June 8, 1967, 5 on the US Hot 100 and 1 in the Netherlands, and claims of over ten million sales are made. The promo film was shot at Witley Court in Worcestershire, directed by Peter Clifton. It appears on the US edition of the debut album as track one, at 4:04, but not on the UK edition. Annie Lennox took it to 16 in the UK in 1995, and the Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve version reached 94 in the US in 1984. Mojo ranked it 22nd among the greatest singles in 1997. The Topic upload is a 2007 remaster of the mono single mix.