Procol Harum - A & B: The Singles (Great compilation of all the PH singles)

Although Procol Harum owed their career to their initial single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale," they were never really a singles band. Annotator Chris Welch notes that the group was not a one-hit wonder, but it might be called a three-hit wonder by tossing in "Homburg" and "Conquistador" (four, if "Pandora's Box," a U.K. Top 20, is included). For the most part, Procol Harum were known for their LPs, so the idea of organizing a compilation around singles that happen to have been excerpted from those LPs, largely without the band's say-so, in one country or another, is a curious one. But A&B: The Singles, a three-CD set running just under three and three-quarter hours, manages to include most of Procol Harum's better tracks along with rarities that will intrigue fans. Of course, there are the non-LP B-sides, such as "Lime Street Blues," "Good Captain Clack," "Long Gone Geek," "Drunk Again," "Backgammon," and "Into the Flood." Then, there are foreign curios, including "Shine on Brightly" sung in Italian ("Il Tuo Diamante") and a French single with "Adagio di Albinoni" on one side and "Blue Danube" on the other. Getting into hair-splitting territory, there are singles that represent alternate takes ("Quite Rightly So," "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence"); that have been remixed ("As Strong as Samson Is"); that have been edited for single release; or that are in mono because that's how they were released as singles. The average fan may lose interest at this level of obscurity, but the more fanatic will be engaged. And that's who this collection is aimed at: Procol Harum aficionados who have already bought most of these tracks umpteen times, but not all of them, and not necessarily in these exact forms. For those fans, this album is a godsend; for others, it will seem redundant.

Disc one:
1. A whiter shade of pale
2. Lime Street blues
3. Homeburg
4. Good Captain Clack
5. Il tuo diamente
6. Fortuna (Repent Walpurgis)
7. Quite rightly so
8. In the wee small hours of sixpence
9. Quite rightly so (alternate)
10. Rambling on
11. In the wee small hours of sixpence (alternate)
12. A salty dog
13. Long gone geek
14. The devil came from Kansas
15. Boredom
16. Whisky train (single edit)
17. Broken barricades
18. Power failure

Disc two:
1. Simple sister
2. Song for a dreamer
3. Homburg
4. Conquistador
5. Conquistador (live)
6. Luskus Delph (live)
7. A salty dog (live)
8. All this and more (live)
9. Robert's box (single edit)
10. A rum tale
11. Grand Hotel (single edit)
12. Bringing home the bacon
13. Fires (which burnt brightly)
14. A souvenir of London
15. Toujours l'amour
16. Nothing but the truth
17. Drunk again
18. Beyond the pale
19. Fresh fruit

Disc three:
1. Pandora's box
2. The piper's tune
3. The final thrust (single edit)
4. Taking the time
5. As strong as Sampson (remix)
6. The unquiet zone
7. Adagio di Albinoni
8. The blue Danube (live)
9. Wizard man
10. Backgammon
11. Something magic
12. All our dreams are sold
13. The truth won't fade away
14. A dream in ev'ry home (edit)
15. (You can't) turn back the page
16. One more time
17. Perpetual motion
18. Learn to fly
19. Into the flood

AMG Review by William Ruhlmann