In their homeland, the song topped out at #22.īut more than that, this recording made orchestral history. The single, Conquistador, likewise became their biggest North American hit, reaching #16. It peaked at #5 on the Billboard album chart, the group’s highest placing ever. The album of the event, Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, was released in early 1972. So the group’s classical roots were showing, at least. Mind you, the group’s biggest hit prior to the Edmonton Symphony collaboration had been Whiter Shade of Pale, a song built around an organ riff taken directly from an organ prelude by J.S. Some of their more adventurous tracks, including a “rock cantata” In Held ‘Twas in I, were deemed more suitable than tracks like Homburg, which had topped out at #34 on the Billboard singles charts in 1967. The songs chosen for orchestral treatment weren’t typical stuff for the band.
“It is, all things considered,” wrote Faulds, “a nervous afternoon.” Wilson complaining that he couldn’t hear the orchestra through the onstage monitors, and even a taped explosion that failed to go on cue. Jon Faulds reports that the rehearsal was not auspicious. “Rhythmically interesting and accompaniments that were not just note-for-note harmonies,” wrote iconic Edmonton Journal classical critic Keith Ashwell in his review of a concert even he admitted was a bit out of his depth. Gary Brooker wrote the orchestral arrangements for the show. “The whole show received a standing ovation so warm that the three groups (ESO, Procol Harum and Edmonton’s Da Camera Singers) elected to play almost the entire program a second time,” wrote Jon Faulds in his Edmonton Journal review. But it was also because of the response on the part of the sold-out house. This was undoubtedly for the sake of the 16-track recording being made of the event (cutting edge technology at the time), cleaning up the miscues and all that. They ended up performing pretty much the entire concert twice. So was British-born ESO Music Director Lawrence Leonard, who boldly took on the role of "interpreter" for an orchestra used to the printed score, and a rock band more versed in the 16-bar blues progression. But Gary Brooker, vocalist and pianist for the group, was game. Procol Harum wasn’t art rock – not really. Rock had met (collided with?) symphonies before, the most famous example being the Moody Blues uniting their mellotron progressive rock sound with the London Festival Orchestra for the album Days of Future Passed.
Yorke immediately suggested Procol Harum. He said as much to legendary rock writer Ritchie Yorke at a chance meeting. Hunka was eager to find another group with which to collaborate. They had been considering recording in North America, and the foresight of then-ESO Assistant General Manager Bob Hunka enticed Procol Harum to the Jubilee Auditorium.Įver an orchestra to go where angels fear to tread, the ESO had previously collaborated with Canadian band Lighthouse for what had been an extremely successful show. On November 18, 1971, British rock group Procol Harum stopped in Edmonton as part of their tour. First recording with a symphony orchestra to sell Gold, subsequently the first to sell Platinum.
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