type of cliché and phrasal template. Composition The song is in moderate time in C major and is characterised by the bassline moving stepwise downwards in a repeated pattern throughout. In classical music this is known as a ground bass. The harmonic structure is identical for the organ melody, the verse and the chorus, except that the chorus finishes with a cadence. The main organ melody appears at the beginning and after each verse/chorus. But it is also heard throughout, playing variations of its theme and counterpointing the vocal line. As the chorus commences "And so it was, that later ...", the vocal and organ accompaniment begin a short crescendo, with the organist running his finger rapidly down and up the entire keyboard. The final instrumental fades out to silence ⁠ ⁠— a common device in pop music of the time. The similarity between the Hammond Organ line of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and J. S. Bach's Air from his Orchestral Suite No. 3 BWV1068, (the "Air on the G string"), where the sustained opening note of the main melodic line flowers into a free-flowing melody against a descending bass line, has been noted. Gary Brooker said of his composition in his interview with Uncut magazine: Allan Moore notes in the 2018 BBC radio series "Soul Music" that the resemblance "creates the sense of [Bach’s] music without actually quoting it". The similarity is also referred to humorously in the 1982 play The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard and in the 1991 film The Commitments. Other writers have noted similar "family resemblances" to other works by Bach: the Sinfonia which opens the cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156, the organ chorale Prelude O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde groß (O Man, Lament Your Sin So Great), BWV 622, from the (Little Organ Book) and the Cantata Sleepers Wake, BWV140. The music also borrows ideas from "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge. Recording Procol Harum recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale" at Olympic Sound Studios in London, England. The recording was produced by Denny Cordell. Because they did not have a regular drummer, the drums were played by Bill Eyden, a session musician. The track was completed in two takes, with no subsequent overdubbing. A few days after the session, the band re-recorded the song with their newly recruited drummer, Bobby Harrison, at Advision Studios.