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Procol Harum singer wins full royalty rights for A Whiter Shade Of Pale Last Updated: 8:05pm BST 04/04/2008 The lead singer of Procol Harum has won a court battle to reclaim full royalty rights to the group's worldwide hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Gary Brooker Gary Brooker, 62, appealed after Matthew Fisher, the musician who contributed the organ music to the song, won a High Court ruling that he was entitled to 40 per cent of the musical copyright. The song, which sold 10 million copies and became one of the anthems of the 1967 summer of love, still...

Rock star Gary Brooker was left A Whiter Shade Of Pale today after losing a High Court battle over the copyright of his massive worldwide hit of 1967. Mr Justice Blackburne ruled that Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting Hammond organ parts on the Procol Harum record which sold 10 million copies, is entitled to a 40% share of the musical copyright. Fisher, a classically-trained musician who now works as a computer programmer in Croydon, south London, had claimed a half share from Brooker. But he was awarded the lesser amount because the judge found that although the Fisher contribution...

SMASHED HITS Pop lyrics re-appraised by the Magazine A Whiter Shade of Pale, a number one single in 1967, is at the centre of a legal dispute. But what do the words mean? - "Great intro, uh?" - "They nicked it from Marvin Gaye." - "He nicked it from Bach!" This description of Procol Harum's 1967 hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale is from the film The Commitments, but it might also end up as an exchange in the Royal Courts of Justice, where former members of the band are trying to settle a royalties dispute over the song -...