A Whiter Shade of Procol Harum Quiz

Answer: The Paramounts

The Paramounts' only commercial success was a song called "Poison Ivy", a song which was a much greater hit for The Coasters in the US.

The band was created by merging two bands from a "battle of the bands" contest held in Southend. Brooker was 14 at the time. Over the period of a few years they became one of the best R&B bands on the circuit, despite some personnel changes. They disbanded in 1966.

Answer: song

During the latter years of The Paramounts, Brooker began writing songs with Keith Reid. Not long after the band broke up, Brooker and Reid recorded a song they had written, "A Whiter Shade of Pale". It took off, and people started clamouring for tours and live shows - only, there was no band, just two individual people writing together.

The producer had credited the song to "Procol Harum" but it was really only Brooker and Reid. They had to scramble to get some other people together and form the band itself in order to cut a full album and tour.

Answer: it was named for Reid's cat

Meow. It was the band's manager Guy Stevens who chose the name, but it was Reid's cat which has been so memorialised. History does not seem to readily give the actual name of the cat (which was probably close but not quite the same as the band's name), only that it was probably a Burmese.

The name is also a bad Latin translation of the phrase "beyond these things" or "far from these things".

Answer: Wonderful Radio London

"Wonderful Radio London", like "Radio Caroline" and "Swinging Radio England", was a pirate radio station. At the time, only the BBC could broadcast radio in the UK, and it was still in denial over rock music. Those of us who wanted to hear rock had to tune into the stations broadcast from ships anchored off the coast in international waters. "Wonderful Radio London" broadcast from the MV Galaxy, an old US minesweeper which was now sweeping listeners away from the BBC. Some of its DJs included names like Tony Blackburn, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Alan West.

A copy of the record was sent to them a month before it was released for sale, and by the time the record was released, it was a hit.

Answer: Matthew Fisher

Fisher is the organist on "Whiter Shade of Pale". He produced the group's third album, "Salty Dog", then quit the band in 1969 to pursue solo interests, including producing two albums for Robin Trower. He sued the group in 2005, claiming co-authorship of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and won the case in 2006, although with a lesser percentage than he had claimed (the case is, as of this writing, under appeal). At that time he was working as a computer programmer in the UK.

Knights was the bass guitarist on "Whiter Shade of Pale", and stayed with the band until 1969.

Reid was the poet of the group, writing all of the group's lyrics. He was with the band throughout its history, including when the band reformed in 1991.

Royer was the guitarist. He didn't stay long; after the song was recorded, he left the band to form Freedom with another ex-Procol Harum band member, Bobby Harrison.

Answer: true

The US version, released by Duram records, started with "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (not on the UK release) but did not include the track "Good Captain Clack" found on Regal Zonophone Records' UK release.

The rest of the tracks were the same on both releases:
"Conquistador"
"She Wandered Through the Garden Fence"
"Something Following Me"
"Mabel"
"Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)"
"A Christmas Camel"
"Kaleidoscope"
"Salad Days (Are Here Again)" and
"Repent Walpurgis",

although not in the exact same order on both releases.

Answer: A&M

A&M Records was founded in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. It became the US's largest independent label until its 1979 merger with RCA Records.

BMG Records is the Bertelsmann Music Group, which may surprise a lot of people who assumed that its name included "British". (I am one of those...) It was 'born' in 1987, is the world's largest independent music publisher and is half owner of Sony Music.

Island Records, founded in 1959 on the island of Jamaica, is a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group. It was the world's largest "indie" label until its sale to PolyGram in 1989.

Asylum Records began life in 1971, founded by David Geffen. Geffen also started Elektra Records in 1972, and merged the two to become Elektra/Asylum Records. Geffen retired from the company in 1975, and the two labels eventually split apart. They are now part of Warner Music Group.

Answer: Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was written by the late Freddie Mercury for the Queen album, "A Night at the Opera". It is in operatic style, with six sections: Introduction (a capella: "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me"), Ballad (harmony and solo, "Mama, just killed a man"), Guitar Solo, Opera (choral, "Scaramouche, will you do the fandango"), Hard Rock (just that, "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye") and "Outro" (choral and solo, "nothing really mattered to me").

"Yesterday" is the most covered song (Guinness Book of Records confirms) and was performed over 7 million times by the end of 1999. It was recorded by The Beatles for their album, "Help".

"Stairway to Heaven" was released on "Led Zeppelin IV" (by Led Zeppelin) - it will surprise many to learn that it was never released as a single. That did not stop it from allegedly being the most played song on American FM stations.

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was ranked as the #2 all-time song by Rolling Stone Magazine, and was the song that catapulted The Rolling Stones into immortality. It also irritated the older generation with its blatant sexuality, cementing the label "bad boys" to the band.

Answer: true

The Isle of Wight Festival takes place each year on - shock, horror - the Isle of Wight. (For those of you who are geographically challenged, it's off the southern coast of England.)

And for those of you who are going to land all over me on this one, yes, the Festival was held in 1968, 1969 and 1970, then not held again until its revival in 2002.

Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the greatest composers of all time, a genius who developed the Baroque style to perfection and whose counterpoint has both musical and mathematical beauty. Two of his best-known works, "Air on a G String" (get your mind out of the gutter, it was based on the G string on a violin) and "Sleepers Awake" are believed to have been the basis for "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Many people believe one or the other was directly 'quoted' in the work, but while the first five notes are very like "Air" and the end of each phrase is largely taken (according to Brooker) from "Sleepers", the tune is not a direct copy of either.

Johann Christian Bach was JS Bach's youngest son, a composer and player of the viola da gamba.

George Frideric Handel was a German composer who moved to the UK and is most famous for his magnum opus, "The Messiah", including the "Hallelujah" chorus. Other famous works include the "Music for the Royal Fireworks" and the "Water Music".

Antonio Vivaldi was a priest, violinist and composer from Venice. He is particularly known for his four concerti known as "The Four Seasons"; in his lifetime he composed over 500 concertos, 46 operas, 73 sonatas and more.