The Romantic Connection Between Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney wrote countless love songs for people all over the world to call their “special song” with their significant other, and in the late 1960s, Procol Harum returned the favor with their 1967 hit, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. Fittingly, the track became one of the defining songs of the Summer of Love, which is likely how McCartney felt after meeting his future wife.

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Remember the joke in Wayne’s World where “Dream Weaver” played when Cassandra appeared? Imagine that, but with Procol Harum and Linda Eastman.

Paul McCartney Meets Linda Eastman for the First Time

Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman met in a brief but cinematic moment at a London club called Bag O’Nails. The Beatle was at the club listening to music and socializing, and Eastman was on assignment, taking photographs of the local scene. As Eastman passed by McCartney’s table, the musician jutted his hand out in front of her and introduced himself. (As if the face of Beatlemania for the last four years needed an introduction.)

“I saw an obvious opportunity,” McCartney later remembered in a 2008 interview. “I said, ‘My name’s Paul. What’s yours?’ I think she probably recognized me. It was so corny. But I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here. Later that night, we went on together to another club, the Speakeasy. It was our first date, and I remember I heard Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ for the first time.”

McCartney said the 1967 track became his and Linda’s special song. In her 1992 book, Linda McCartney’s Sixties, the first wife of the then-former Beatle agreed that both she and Paul “fell in love” with the track. “We all thought it must be Stevie Winwood,” she recalled. “But it turned out to be Procol Harum.” 

A Little Procol Harum, a Little Bit of Cream

Procol Harum wasn’t the only popular 1960s band that played a role in Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman meeting for the first time, although the ex-Beatle might push back against the second band, which may or may not have helped. Cream lyricist Peter Brown claims to be the one who introduced Eastman and McCartney, having been at Bag O’Nails with Macca at the time. The following day, Eastman met Brown at his office to show him photographs of The Rolling Stones she had recently taken.

“I admired one of Brian Jones, whom we had coincidentally run into the night before, and Llinda gave it to me as a gift,” Brown recalled. “In return, I gave her an invitation to the Sgt. Pepperi photo session. I would always tease Paul, asking, ‘Why are you denying the fact that I introduced you to your wife?’ And he’d say, ‘No, no, no. I met her. Nothing to do with you.”

McCartney was, after all, the one who had to work up the nerve to stick his hand out and formally meet the woman who would become his first wife and mother to four of his five children: Heather, Mary, Stella, and James. The McCartneys were married until Linda’s death in 1998.

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