Parody time

'The sincerest form of flattery'

A Whiter Shade of Pale

OK, A Whiter Shade of Pale should be God's gift to satirists. So have a look at the progress so far (don't feel obliged to send us your own!) ...

A Brighter Grade of SAIL

A Bloodless Shade of Pale

The Heavy Rock Version of AWSoP

Looking forward to Procol's 40th

Turned out Mary for a Sale

Spam in my E-mail

'We skipped the choir practice'

'The Fifty Shades of Grey'

Political cartoon printed during the AWSoP authorship lawsuit

Not exactly a parody, but (June 2004) a funny adaptation of the song – on BBC Radio 4's long-running and hilarious 'antidote to panel-games', the nonsensical I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue – invited a competitor to sing the words of A Whiter Shade of Pale to the tune of My Old Man's a Dustman.

Likewise (in the admirable words of poet, parodist and railway-writer Jeff Vinter):
'Possibly the most extraordinary rendition of A Whiter Shade of Pale was heard on Radio 4 this evening (Monday 26 November 2018) on the panel show I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, when Jack Dee set Graeme Garden the seemingly impossible task of singing Keith Reid’s famous lyrics to the tune of George Formby’s When I’m Cleaning Windows. Mr Garden rose to the challenge so expertly that someone who had been living on another planet for the last hundred years might have thought that this strange pairing actually belonged together.'  You can hear it by clicking here and scrolling to 10m 31s.

And there's also this snippet ...

"Say so long to the troupe's recent "Democratic Medley," which ignored Edwards but included this (now obsolete) bit, belted out to the tune of the Procol Harum classic: "You can always vote for Gephardt / He's a whiter shade of pale." Read it all here (thanks, Jonas)

Typewriter Torment

Tornado Torment: 'I hardly need add that the threat to lift the West Somerset Railway is not to be taken seriously'

Features at 'Beyond the Pale'