The London-born Brooker was singer and keyboard participant with the band, which had an enormous hit with its first single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale."
Gary Brooker, the Procol Harum frontman who sang one of many Sixties’ most enduring hits, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” has died. He was 76.
The English rock band stated Brooker died at his house on Saturday. He had been receiving therapy for most cancers.
An announcement posted on the band’s official web site stated: “With the deepest remorse we should announce the dying on February 19 2022 of Gary Brooker MBE, singer, pianist and composer of Procol Harum, and a brightly-shining, irreplaceable gentle within the music business.”
The London-born Brooker was singer and keyboard participant with the band, which had an enormous hit with its first single, “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” With its Baroque-flavored organ solo and mysterious opening line – “We skipped the sunshine fandango, turned cartwheels cross the ground” — the track turned one of many signature tunes of the 1967 “Summer time of Love.”
It topped the U.Ok. album chart for six weeks, was a prime 10 hit in the US and in 2018 was one among six singles inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame.
The choose stated Fisher’s contribution to the track was “substantial however not, in my judgment, as substantial as that of Mr. Brooker.”
The band by no means had one other hit on the identical scale, however Brooker continued to steer Procol Harum for greater than 5 many years, via numerous lineup adjustments and 13 albums.
Brooker additionally launched 4 solo albums and wrote and sang for Eric Clapton’s band and with Invoice Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, and he toured with Ringo Starr’s band Ringo’s All-Starrs.
In 2003, Queen Elizabeth II made him an MBE — member of the Order of the British Empire — for providers to charity.