Procol+harum

Although Procol Harum owed their career to their initial single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale," they were never really a singles band. Annotator Chris Welch notes that the group was not a one-hit wonder, but it might be called a three-hit wonder by tossing in "Homburg" and "Conquistador" (four, if "Pandora's Box," a U.K. Top 20, is included). For the most part, Procol Harum were known for their LPs, so the idea of organizing a compilation around singles that happen to have been excerpted from those LPs, largely without the band's say-so, in one country or another, is a curious one…

Shine on Brightly was influential in the development of progressive rock by breaking all pop and rock music standards with the 17-minute epic "In Held Twas In I", which marked the beginning of the lengthy progressive rock suites that would occur later in the 1970s…

Of the legendary bands Great Britain birthed during the 1960s, none sound remotely like Procol Harum. From their emergence with the single version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" months before the world heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, they were prog before prog, psychedelic before the world knew what it was, and a rocking R&B outfit…

For their ninth album, Procol Harum turned to production by the veteran songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, who had written the first single ("Poison Ivy") by Procol predecessor band, the Paramounts…

Despite the departure of organist Matthew Fisher, Procol Harum survived, and this album is ample proof. Fisher was one of the prime architects of the Harum sound, and his work on such classics as "Shine on Brightly" and, of course, "Whiter Shade of Pale" underline that. Procol continued as a four-piece, and it was indeed a good thing that they decided not to replace Fisher. The sound of the band on this album is a bit sparser, but definitely not without dimension and dynamics. "Simple Sister," one of the finest Gary Brooker/Keith Reid compositions, is truly glorious, with Robin Trower's frightening lead guitar work juxtaposed nicely against a wonderful string arrangement. Several other tracks are first rate, including "Power Failure" and "Playmate of the Mouth."

PH's debut album was supposedly rather hastily cut, but you would never know it by listening (mono recording notwithstanding); aside from the Title track (which wasn't even actually on the original Deram label PH debut LP), there are moments on this album that hold up so well today that they really make you wonder why this group never achieved the kind of stature their talent obviously merited…

This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas…

Procol Harum's debut album is amazingly engaging, considering that it was rushed out to capitalize on the hit title track. The material was all already written (before the hit, in fact), but the group recorded the LP in just two days, simply to get a long-player out, and came up with one of the more pleasingly straightforward releases in their history…

The Prodigal Stranger is the tenth studio album by Procol Harum, released in 1991. The album is dedicated to the memory of Barrie James (B. J.) Wilson, who had been the drummer on all of the group's previous albums. Recorded after a 14-year break, even singer Gary Brooker was uncertain whether or not the sessions would work out for the band: "We never knew if it would work out, but we did know one thing and that was that the basis of us making the new Procol Harum record would be if we could get together a good set of songs…it was very like making a first album."…