WelcomeUser Guide
ToSPrivacyCanary
DonateBugsLicense

©2026 Poal.co

Takes me back to my college days.

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 Whiter Shade of Pale,” sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and topped the charts in the U.K.

The song, the band’s statement asserts, was “widely regarded as defining ‘The Summer of Love,’ yet it could scarcely have been more different from the characteristic records of that era.”

The legacy of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” extended to a No. 57 ranking in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” In 2018, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the ballad – which has spawned more than 1,000 cover versions - into its Singles category."

Takes me back to my college days. 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 Whiter Shade of Pale,” sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and topped the charts in the U.K. The song, the band’s statement asserts, was “widely regarded as defining ‘The Summer of Love,’ yet it could scarcely have been more different from the characteristic records of that era.” The legacy of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” extended to a No. 57 ranking in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” In 2018, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the ballad – which has spawned more than 1,000 cover versions - into its Singles category."

(post is archived)

[–] 1 pt

I wonder if he turned a whiter shade of pale?

[–] 1 pt

You stole my joke you bastard!

[–] 1 pt

probably more of a blue shade