Interesting choice

“Regarding the item about the bride choosing A Whiter Shade of Pale for her wedding,” emails Crawford Taylor of Wolfhill, “the song reached No 1 in the pop charts in 1967; consequently, if it was No 1 at the wedding date then the latter must have been in the previous decade rather than in the seventies, as stated.

“On the other hand, this same record was actually re-released in 1972 but, on that occasion, only managed a highest chart placement of 13. The conclusion must be that either the date of the wedding or the chart position was incorrect as both clearly cannot be right.

“The music was an interesting choice by the bride-to-be and not without some future controversy over its authorship. Initially, it was supposed to have been written by Gary Brooker, the group’s vocalist and (electric) piano player.

“However, even at the time of its initial success, it generated claims of plagiarism from the works of Bach and more recently (in 2007) resulted in a successful UK court case by the group’s former (Hammond) organist, Matthew Fisher, for a share of the writing royalties.

“This he won – at 40% – backdated to 2004 and all the way into the future with the 60% balance to be shared equally between Brooker and Keith Reid, who wrote the lyrics for most of the group’s recordings. Bach, as I understand it, got nothing – but of course, by then, he had been dead for quite a long time!

“The writers always denied plagiarism from Bach, whilst acknowledging that his works may have influenced the nuances of some of the chords. Others maintained that the similarities went somewhat further than this.”

Stewart Macdonald has sent in this photograph of the Pass of Killiecrankie and says: “I took the picture looking towards the Soldier’s Leap showing the colours reflected in the river.”