The Moody Blues

The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues in 1970 at Schiphol Airport (from left to right: Mike Pinder, Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas, John Lodge)
General information
origin	Birmingham , England
Genre (s)	Progressive rock , symphonic rock , psychedelic rock
founding	1964
Website	www.moodybluestoday.com
Founding members
Guitar , vocals	Denny Laine (until 1966)
Flute , harmonica , vocals	Ray Thomas (until 2002, † January 4, 2018 in Surrey)
bass	Clint Warwick (until 1966, † May 15, 2004 in Birmingham)
Piano , Mellotron	Mike Pinder (until 1979)
Drums	Graeme Edge
Current occupation
Guitar , vocals	Justin Hayward (since 1966)
Bass , vocals	John Lodge (since 1966)
Drums	Graeme Edge
former members
bass	Rodney Clark (1966)
Keyboard	Patrick Moraz (1978-1991)

The Moody Blues are a British rock band . They are considered to be the pioneers of symphonic rock , but are also assigned to other sub-genres such as art rock or the non-guitar-oriented lush pop . The Guardian calls them the "forgotten heroes of psychedelia " . Among the still active bands of the so-called British Invasion , the Moody Blues are, after the Rolling Stones and The Who, the most successful in the long run, especially in the USA , where they continue to tour every year. They like to refer to themselves as the intersection of various styles and fan projections; nevertheless “That Sound” is unmistakable. To date, the Moody Blues have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide.

Band history

In the early 1960s, Ray Thomas and John Lodge with the band El Riot & the Rebels were quite popular in Birmingham . Mike Pinder later joined as a keyboardist. After the end of the band, Thomas and Pinder tried to gain a foothold with the Krew Cats in northern Germany (including in Lüneburg). Back at home, they appeared in the spring of 1964 with Denny Laine , Graeme Edge and Clint Warwick - real name Albert Eccles, † 2004 - for the first time as Moody Blues Five , then Moody Blues . The first contemplated band name MB5 was dropped after hopes of winning the local brewers Mitchell's & Butlers as sponsors were not fulfilled .

The time with Denny Laine (1964 to 1966)

The first single, Steal Your Heart Away / Lose Your Money was hardly noticed, but the next piece, the Soul -number Go Now , originally born from the 1938 Soul singer sang Bessie Banks, became a hit and was the only Moody Blues -Single in the UK, topped the charts. However, further success of this kind failed to materialize, although the band had a management contract with Brian Epstein , toured with the Beatles and presented a notable debut album with The Magnificient Moodies . Laine and Pinder wrote some of the song material, including From the Bottom of My Heart (# 22), but a significant part of the repertoire consisted of cover versions.

A top ten hit, Bye Bye Bird , still hit France in 1966, and a few months later, Boulevard de la Madeleine , her only UK single of the year, was at number 18 in Belgium . The continental successes were to prove to be helpful in 1966/67, when the band "overwintered" there, namely in Mouscron , where they still had some loyal fans, but the British tax office had no access.

Teldec presented a double LP with almost all recordings of that era - as far as they were known up to that point - in Germany in 1976 under the title A Dream . The sought-after, officially long unreleased rarities include live recordings from the NME Poll Winners' Concert in London in 1965 and various versions of Things Go Better with Coke .

"The Lost Album" (1966 and 2015)

In the late summer of 1966, two journalists from the Dutch magazine Hit Week visited the Moody Blues in the studio, where the band was working with producer Denny Cordell on a new album called Look Out . Laine wrote all of the material, but Pinder, Thomas and Rodney Clark (born November 23, 1942, the new bass guitarist for Warwick who had retired from the music business since early summer) would also sing. The only song mentioned is Pinders Really Haven´t Got the Time , which had been part of the Moodies repertoire for several months, but was later only used as the B-side of a single.

Nothing came of the album back then, but the remaining recordings were to come to light almost half a century later when the label "esoteric records" reissued the former debut The Magnificient Moodies in the form of a double CD box, with several recordings from Summer 1966 as bonus tracks. These include Boulevard ... , Really Haven´t ... and the Life's Not Life mentioned below , but also covers such as Hang On to a Dream . Two versions of this song - one with Warwick, the other with Clark - supported the long-held assumption that the latter bassist not only performed live but also in the studio.

First relaunch (1966)

At the beginning of October 1966, the previous frontman Laine unexpectedly left the band. The singer and guitarist - real Brian Hines - appeared in 1967 with the Denny Laine Strings at the Windsor Festival , then reappeared in the limelight after several rather insignificant stops in 1971 at the Wings of Paul McCartney . Clark's brief affiliation also ended, he was later with the Rockin 'Berries and even later with the folk rock band Storyteller , where he sang and played bass and was able to place his own song, Has Been , on the first album of the same name . After his departure, the Moody Blues tried in vain to recruit Steve Knowles from The Factotums , after Klaus Voormann had previously canceled. But soon afterwards they were able to get an old friend, Lodge, to participate.

The time with Laine "actually" ended in January 1967, when Decca threw the single Life's Not Life out of the drawer (more precisely: from the canceled Look Out sessions) on the UK market, where it left no traces. At that time the new Moody Blues had long been struggling to make a comeback.

New beginning and world successes (1967 to 1973)

Ex- rebel John Lodge and singer / guitarist Justin Hayward - mediated by Eric Burdon - replaced the staff departures at the Moody Blues. Since they were no longer successful with their previous sound rooted in rhythm and blues , they decided to radically change their style. The band was one of the first to use a mellotron to achieve a symphonic sound. Thomas learned the flute , which was also a rather unusual instrument for a rock band at the time.

In order to reduce their debts and obligations to Decca , the band took on the obligation to record a rock 'n' roll version of Dvořák's 9th Symphony in order to demonstrate the sonic possibilities of the “Deramic Sound System” on a kind of demo record . However, they used the crisis as an opportunity by insisting on their artistic freedom and recording their own titles instead of the classical work. With the participation of a symphony orchestra under Peter Knight, which varied their motifs between the pieces, the album Days of Future Passed was created in 1967 , which, to everyone's surprise, sold extremely well and is still considered a milestone among all concept albums . Tony Clarke, who died on January 4, 2010, was the producer of this and the following albums up to 1978.

The two decoupled singles with the titles Tuesday Afternoon and Nights in White Satin , which later became an evergreen , initially achieved modest spots in the charts; It wasn't until the 1970s that Nights in White Satin experienced a comeback and placed in the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic . The song, which many artists gecovert was, has remained the piece to date by which the group is identified most. The next album In Search of the Lost Chord from 1968 was also a success, as was the single Ride My See-Saw , the first recording to be produced using eight-track technology . The band sound became increasingly complex. In 1969 On the Threshold of a Dream and the concept album To Our Children's Children's Children , which celebrated the first moon landing , were released. It was also the first release on the band's own record label Threshold Records . The sometimes unfavorable reviews by some reviewers could not diminish the success of the Moody Blues. Among other things, the band was accused of "boundless sentimentality", but has now enjoyed cult status with many fans, and in retrospect, this period is considered the "Classic 7" phase, which alludes to the symbolic seven years and seven albums of that time.

The Moody Blues should originally have performed at the Woodstock Festival , as can be seen on early posters. Her performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 was a great success .

After the next albums A Question of Balance (1970), Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1971) and Seventh Sojourn (1972), the single hits Question , Isn't Life Strange and (in the USA) I'm Just a Singer In a rock 'n' roll band and the aforementioned re-release of Nights in White Satin , the Moody Blues took a creative break.

Creative break and solo years (1973 to 1978)

For years it was unclear whether it was a break or whether the band had split up and broken up. The band members recorded solo albums, Hayward and Lodge produced the successful duo album Blue Jays with studio musicians , with which they also went on tour, and had a top ten single with Blue Guitar in 1975, which Hayward with the band 10cc in their studio had recorded. However, only Justin Hayward managed to pursue a solo career with some degree of success and continuity. According to his own statement, he was the only one against the separation: After the start of the recording for the planned next album, “(...) came a call from the canteen. There sat the others - Mike, Ray, Graeme and John (...) and one of them said: 'Oh yeah, we decided that we will not continue on an album'. Just like that. ”The Moody Blues got together again in 1977 to make new studio recordings, but one last time with Mike Pinder, who then retired from the music business. In 1977, against the will of the band, Caught Live +5 was released , a double LP with live recordings already eight years old and even older studio outtakes .

Comeback and new notes (1978 to 1992)

In 1978 the Moody Blues again presented a joint album with Octave , but it turned out to be the last in their “classic” line-up. Then a new producer, Pip Williams, replaced the "sixth Moody" Tony Clarke. Mike Pinder now lived in the United States, no longer wanted to tour with the group and was replaced by keyboardist Patrick Moraz , who had previously played for Yes and Refugee . With Moraz the live performances gained momentum; when he was then presented as the fifth band member on Long Distance Voyager , Pinder saw himself wrongly ousted from the group and sued his previous colleagues, which led to a long-lasting rift. Although the Moody Blues albums no longer had the character of concept albums, unlike in the 1960s and 1970s, they initially remained successful with the audience. So reaching Long Distance Voyager 1981 even ranked first in the US; In 1986, the single, Your Wildest Dreams, became a top ten hit and won Billboard's Video of the Year award .

From the mid-1980s onwards, the Moody Blues used additional musicians such as keyboardist Bias Boshell for their recordings and concerts, and finally they also brought in background singers. In addition, the albums of the 1980s and 1990s were more and more clearly influenced by Hayward, Lodge, Moraz and the next producer Tony Visconti , who tried to modernize the group sound with the help of computer-aided studio technology ( sampling and sequencing ), while the shares of Graeme Edge and Ray Thomas decreased. The result was some albums of controversial quality and increasing conflicts in the band. For years Thomas limited himself to live performances, he rarely appeared in the studio.

In the meantime, the band had fallen out of favor with large parts of the local music press. The chart positions of their singles and albums remained well below those in the USA, where the Moody Blues now withdrew more and more when it came to live performances. It was only towards the end of the 1990s that the anti-mood should dissolve and the band fill the Royal Albert Hall again as before .

Red Rocks and Ray Thomas' farewell (1992 to present)

It was not until the 1990s that chart notices failed to appear, although the group tried something new again, published a live concert with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in 1993 under the title A Night at Red Rocks and in 1999 with Strange Times again Band (including Thomas and Edge) recorded a collectively developed album. In the meantime she had split up with Patrick Moraz in disagreement and lawyers had to take action again. Coupled with a best-of album, Strange Times reached number 19 in the UK. The December 2003 release is broadly a Christmas record and could be seen as the musical end of the line for a once progressive group. In the meantime, Ray Thomas had retired, while the remaining trio Edge, Hayward and Lodge are still active. Supported by Norda Mullen as flutist, rhythm guitarist and background singer, Bernie Barlow and Julie Ragins on keyboards and background singer, Paul Bliss on keyboards and Gordon Marshall as second drummer, the Moody Blues toured the USA, Australia and New Zealand in 2005 through the USA and Europe and again in 2007 through the USA. In 2008 there was also a flying visit to Germany.

The release of the live DVD for the double CD Lovely to See You - Live at the Greek was announced for March 2006 . In the meantime not only this DVD has been released, but also The Moody Blues - Their Full Story in a 3 Disc Deluxe Set , consisting of two DVDs mainly with interviews as well as a bonus audio CD with several previously unreleased ancient recordings of the Moody Blues and theirs Forerunners. In addition to the current band members, Denny Laine, Mike Pinder and Tony Clarke, among others, have their say, while Ray Thomas had withdrawn completely from public life for a long time and Patrick Moraz did not want to express himself. With Live at the BBC 1967-1970 , also a double CD, three quarters of which was recorded in the station's own studios, another gap in the documentation of the band's history is closed.

Since 2006, the seven albums of the so-called “Classic 7” period (1967 to 1972) have been gradually released in SACD format with outtakes from the recording sessions at that time; with the assistance and control of Haywards, who attached great importance to the use of the original Masters. The outtakes are all alternative versions of the same title, but three or four previously "lost" songs and demos have now surfaced, including Iceland , which started work on the follow-up album for Seventh Sojourn in 1973 , the one after "Canteen resolution" was no longer implemented. In 2008, Octave , Long Distance Voyager and The Present were released in remastered versions with bonus tracks, all of which were previously unreleased live recordings.

In the (now closed) Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, a dark ride was dedicated to the song Nights in White Satin . With a newly recorded version of the song and corresponding special effects, Nights in White Satin: The Trip is equipped.

The 2009 USA summer tour began on July 21st in front of a full house in San Diego ; 45 years after the band was founded. The second keyboard player was again Bernie Barlow, and in 2010 Julie Ragins was again on stage. That year the long-time sideman Paul Bliss was replaced by a new keyboardist, Alan Hewitt, who came from jazz.

In December 2017, The Moody Blues were honored with the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . The official launch took place on April 14, 2018. In addition to Edge, Hayward and Lodge, Laine and Pinder were also present. The latter, however, refrained from an induction speech. Ray Thomas passed away in January of that year.

Moody Blues live

In the summer of 2007, Hayward emphasized in an interview that the current touring band (Mullen, Ragins, Bliss, Marshall) was helping to improve live performances and that the Moody Blues had returned more to the original versions of their pieces: remixing old live material "... I can see where we started to play around with the songs and leave the originally recorded versions (...) And maybe you shouldn't have done that." The band had come to terms with trying to reinvent their material done bad service. This can also be seen as a late swipe at Moraz, who was dismissed in 1991 for "for not playing as written", ie for improvising on his own. In any case, it illustrates the extremely controlled handling of the band with their own live performances or with what was recorded. For almost 20 years there was only Caught Live +5 as an official live album (on a subsidiary label of Decca). With the exception of two songs on the B-sides of maxi singles , the Moraz years were only documented on bootlegs up to autumn 2008 , of which, however, quite a few are in circulation and from part of the fan base the official ones because of “not playing as written” Publications are preferred.

These only really kicked in with A Night at Red Rocks (1993) and present the Moody Blues on three newer live albums (see discography), two of which have orchestral accompaniment, apart from the BBC “nostalgia trip” mentioned above but only on December 17, 1969 six pieces (out of a total of 41) were actually recorded live. Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 is now also available, released in August 2008.

Octave's audio re-release from 2008 surprisingly contains several live recordings with Patrick Moraz - until then persona non grata for a long time - as bonus tracks, including four pieces from a concert in Seattle in 1979. Since then, fans and critics have been able to judge for themselves whether Hayward's own statement is correct that the original versions were too far removed from them at the time.

Publications on DVD

All live albums except Caught… are also available on DVD ; Red Rocks even in two versions, of which The Other Side of Red Rocks mainly presents interviews, recordings of rehearsals and sound checks, but also in full length those (partly less perfect) songs that were missing on the original CD . Unlike the Hall of Fame , it features an unabridged version of the Legend of a Mind dedicated to Timothy Leary .

The presentations on DVD also include a recording of her performance at the renowned Montreux Festival in 1991 (without Moraz, but with Boshell, Bliss, Marshall and the singers Sue Shattock and June Boyce). Apparently little or no post-processing, with audible sound and other problems, especially at the beginning of the set, before they finally pull the audience on their side, this is perhaps the most honest live release by the band, which itself had no influence. The 1970 Paris Lost Concert , to which Pinder contributed a blurb, is different . In it he does not mention that the French television program at the time was an appearance that was heavily edited afterwards and that a maximum of a third of the pieces actually came across live. These and some "scattered" individual contributions to various artists DVDs from the time with Denny Laine were the only officially available film recordings of the Moody Blues with Mike Pinder, before the DVD version of the Isle of Wight in May 2009, again supervised by Hayward appeared. Compared to the audio version, some (not filmed) songs are missing; there are interviews - also with Pinder - and as a rarity an excerpt from Bo Diddley , played live by the Denny Laine Moodies at the aforementioned NME concert in London in 1965.

Legend of a Band , released as a videotape several years ago , is now also available on DVD; it is basically an earlier version of Their Full Story (see above). Individual appearances of the band in their original line-up - or with Rodney Clark - can also be found on compilations; for example the German Beat Club .

Lovely to See You - Live at the Greek showed the Moody Blues, without an orchestra, so to speak, "Caught 3 +4", in the (high) form desired by Hayward. German critics were also able to convince themselves of this in October 2008: “The degree of perfection is high. That comes at the expense of spontaneity. But those who go to a Moody Blues concert don't want the band to reinvent themselves every evening. We want continuity. ”Norda Mullen had to do with this for a long time, celebrated by part of the fan base for her stage presence and virtuoso playing, while another part mourned Ray Thomas, whose pieces had disappeared with him from the live program .

Moody Blues 2017

The latter sentence recently ended in past perfect , because fifty years after the first release of Days ... the band presented this album live in full in 2017. Hayward and Lodge sing all of the songs, including Thomas and Pinder's; Edge speaks his own lyrics. In the meantime, a previously unpublished song from the Days ... time , which was presented live at the time, has appeared on the web: (Our) Beautiful Dream .

Others

• The Moody Blues have sung two of their songs in Spanish: Noches de Seda (Nights in White Satin) and Al fin voy a Finderarte (I Know You're Out There Somewhere).

• Nights in White Satin has been covered by artists as diverse as Elkie Brooks , Eric Burdon , Sandra , The Dickies and Juliane Werding . Both Gipsy Vagabonds and Los Z-66 delivered a Spanish version with a more literal translation of the title: Noches en blanco saten . Gypsy was covered by Tommy Shaw and Slash . A version of Fly Me High exists by Slade on her album Beginnings .

• In the United States, the song title Nights in White Satin has occasionally been misunderstood as Knights in White Satin . These "knights" in their white robes were interpreted as the Ku Klux Klan . The error can also be found in the text accompanying the LP version of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds .

• There are also various Italian versions of the said song, including Notte di Luce , sung by Mario Frangoulis (Italian and English), towards the end in a duet with Justin Hayward (English). Blanche nuit de satin is the French version of Marie Laforêt's title (1982).

• The English rock group Barclay James Harvest reworked motifs from the song Nights in White Satin into their own piece, Poor Man's Moody Blues , after they had been described by critics as "Moody blues for the poor".

• The Moody Blues made a guest appearance on the 1999 television series The Simpsons . In the episode We're driving to ... Vegas from the tenth season, a modified version of the Late Lament from her album Days of Future Passed is spoken.

• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announcement in December 2017 resulted in a phone call from Rolling Stone music magazine to Justin Hayward. According to his memory, "the first in 51 years". When asked about a possible participation of Pinder and Thomas at the Induction Ceremony, he said he couldn't foresee that, but he was open to it.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1965	The Magnificent Moodies	-	-	-	-	-
1967	Days of Future Passed	-	-	-	UK27 silver (16 weeks)UK	US3 platinum (106 weeks)US	with the London Festival Orchestra
1968	In Search of the Lost Chord	DE30 (1 month) DE	-	-	UK5 silver (32 weeks)UK	US23 gold (29 weeks)US
1969	On the threshold of a dream	DE37 (1 month) DE	-	-	UK1 silver (74 weeks)UK	US20th platinum (136 weeks)US
	To Our Children's Children's Children	-	-	-	UK2 (44 weeks) UK	US14th gold (44 weeks)US
1970	A question of balance	-	-	-	UK1 (19 weeks) UK	US3 platinum (74 weeks)US
1971	Every Good Boy Deserves Favor	DE44 (1 month) DE	-	-	UK1 (21 weeks) UK	US2 gold (43 weeks)US
1972	Seventh Sojourn	DE38 (2 months) DE	-	-	UK5 (18 weeks) UK	US1 gold (44 weeks)US
1974	This is the moody blues	-	-	-	UK14th gold (18 weeks)UK	US11 gold (25 weeks)US	Best of album
1977	Caught Live +5	-	-	-	-	US26 (15 weeks) US	Live album, recorded in 1969 at the Royal Albert Hall , plus five previously unreleased studio recordings
1978	Octave	DE15 (2½ months) DE	AT25 (1 month) AT	-	UK6th gold (18 weeks)UK	US13 platinum (30 weeks)US
1979	Out of This World	-	-	-	UK15th silver (10 weeks)UK	-	compilation
1981	Long Distance Voyager	DE28 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	UK7th silver (19 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (39 weeks)US
1983	The Present	DE33 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK15 (8 weeks) UK	US26th platinum (22 weeks)US
1985	Voices in the Sky / The Best of the Moody Blues	-	-	-	-	US132 (9 weeks) US	Best of album
1986	The Other Side of Life	DE56 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK24 (6 weeks) UK	US9 (42 weeks) US
1988	Sur la mer	-	-	CH26 (1 week) CH	UK21 (5 weeks) UK	US38 (19 weeks) US
1989	Greatest hits	-	-	-	UK71 (1 week) UK	US113 gold (16 weeks)US	Best of album
1990	MXMXC - The Story of the Moody Blues… Legend of a Band	DE65 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	compilation
1991	Keys of the Kingdom	-	-	-	UK54 (2 weeks) UK	US94 (11 weeks) US
1993	A Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra	-	-	-	-	US93 gold (5 weeks)US	Recorded live on September 9, 1992 at the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver
1996	The Very Best Of [1996]	-	-	-	UK13 platinum (20 weeks)UK	-	Best of album 5 chart weeks belong to the re-release in 2011 (place 58)
1999	Strange Times	-	-	-	UK19 (6 weeks) UK	US93 (5 weeks) US	in Great Britain as a double album together with the 1996 Very Best of album
2000	Hall of Fame: Recorded Live at the Royal Albert Hall	-	-	-	-	US185 (1 week) US	Live recording on May 1st, 2000
2002	The Very Best Of [2002]	-	-	-	UK5 (32 weeks) UK	-	Extended version of the 1996 very best of album
2017	Nights in White Satin: The Essential Moody Blues	-	-	-	UK63 (1 week) UK	-	Live recording on May 19, 2017

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• A Dream (double album, Germany 1976, compilation mostly from the Laine period)
• The Great Moody Blues (compilation, 1978)
• Eternity in an Hour: A Collection of the Best of the Moody Blues (1981)
• Go Now (compilation, 1983)
• Prelude (compilation, 1987)
• Time Traveler (4-CD box, 1994)
• Anthology (compilation, 1998)
• Classic Moody Blues: The Universal Masters Collection (Compilation, 1999)
• The Best of the Moody Blues: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection (Best-of-Album, 2000)
• The Singles (compilation, 2000)
• Say It with Love (compilation, 2003)
• Ballads (compilation, 2003)
• December (Christmas album, 2003)
• Lovely to See You: Live (2005)
• Gold (compilation, 2005)
• An Introduction to the Moody Blues (Compilation, 2006)
• Collected (compilation, 2007)
• Live at the BBC: 1967-1970 (2007)
• Playlist Plus (compilation, 2008)
• Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (2008)
• Icon (compilation, 2011)
• Timeless Flight (compilation, 2013)
• The Polydorbox (compilation, 2014)

Singles

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1964	Go now! The Magnificent Moodies	-	-	-	UK1 (14 weeks) UK	US10 (14 weeks) US	Original: Bessie Banks (1964 an R&B Top 40 hit, producers Leiber / Stoller ), Authors: Bessie's husband Larry Banks with Milton Bennett
1965	I don't want to go on without you	-	-	-	UK33 (9 weeks) UK	-	Authors: Jerry Wexler , Bert Berns , Denny Cordell
	From the Bottom of My Heart (I Love You)	-	-	-	UK22 (9 weeks) UK	US93 (3 weeks) US	Authors: Denny Laine, Mike Pinder, Denny Cordell
	Every day	-	-	-	UK44 (2 weeks) UK	-	Authors: Denny Laine, Mike Pinder, Denny Cordell
1966	Stop! The Magnificent Moodies	-	-	-	-	US98 (1 week) US	Last single with Denny Laine as lead singer that hit the US charts (not released in UK) Authors: Denny Laine, Mike Pinder
1967	Nights in White Satin Days of Future Passed	DE18 (5½ months) DE	AT55 (1 week) AT	CH6 (8 weeks) CH	UK9 silver (35 weeks)UK	US2 (18 weeks) US	Recorded with the London Festival Orchestra , the author was the new singer Justin Hayward only top placements in the UK and US in 1972, in Austria only placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame , Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013
1968	Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon) Days of Future Passed	-	-	-	-	US24 (11 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
	Voices in the Sky In Search of the Lost Chord	-	-	-	UK27 (10 weeks) UK	-	Author: Justin Hayward
	Ride My See-Saw In Search of the Lost Chord	-	-	-	UK42 (1 week) UK	US61 (5 weeks) US	The author was bassist and second vocalist John Lodge
1969	Never Comes the Day On the Threshold of a Dream	-	-	-	-	US91 (4 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
1970	Question A Question of Balance	DE9 (3 months) DE	-	-	UK2 (12 weeks) UK	US21 (12 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
1971	The Story in Your Eyes Every Good Boy Deserves Favor	-	-	-	-	US23 (11 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
1972	Isn't Life Strange Seventh Sojourn	-	-	-	UK13 (10 weeks) UK	US29 (10 weeks) US	Author: John Lodge
1973	I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) Seventh Sojourn	-	-	-	UK36 (4 weeks) UK	US12 (10 weeks) US	Author: John Lodge
1978	Steppin 'in a Slide Zone Octave	-	-	-	-	US39 (8 weeks) US	Author: John Lodge
	Driftwood Octave	-	-	-	-	US59 (7 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward; last production by Tony Clarke, who has been responsible for all hit singles since Voices in the Sky (1968)
1981	Gemini Dream Long Distance Voyager	-	-	-	-	US12 (15 weeks) US	Authors: Justin Hayward, John Lodge
	The Voice Long Distance Voyager	-	-	-	-	US15 (17 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
	Talking Out of Turn Long Distance Voyager	-	-	-	-	US65 (7 weeks) US	Author: John Lodge
1983	Blue World The Present	-	-	-	UK35 (5 weeks) UK	US62 (6 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
	Sitting at the Wheel The Present	-	-	-	-	US27 (10 weeks) US	Author: John Lodge
1986	Your Wildest Dreams The Other Side of Life	DE28 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US9 (21 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
	The Other Side of Life The Other Side of Life	-	-	-	-	US58 (9 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward
1988	I know you're out there somewhere sur la mer	-	-	-	UK52 (4 weeks) UK	US30 (16 weeks) US	Author: Justin Hayward

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More songs

• Steal Your Heart Away (1964) - the first single ever; according to some sources, Lose Your Money was the A-side
• Boulevard de la Madeleine (1966) - ranked 18th in Belgium in March 1967
• This Is My House (But Nobody Calls, 1966) - was (only) the A- side of Boulevard de la Madeleine in the USA, otherwise the B-side
• Life's Not Life (1967) - was only released as a single "out of the drawer" in early 1967, still with Laine as the singer, although he had long since left the band
• Fly Me High (1967) - Debut single with Hayward and Lodge
• Love and Beauty (1967)
• Legend of a Mind (1968)
• Lovely to See You (1969)
• Watching and Waiting (1969)
• Candle of Life (1970)
• Eyes of a Child (1970)
• Gypsy (Of a Strange and Distant Time) (1970)
• New Horizons (1972)
• Running Water (1984)
• No More Lies (1988)
• Say It with Love (1991)
• Bless the Wings (That Bring You Back) (1991)
• English Sunset (1999)
• December Snow (2003)

Awards for music sales

Golden record

•  Canada
  • 1978: for the album A Question of Balance
  • 1983: for the album The Present
  • 1988: for the album Sur la mer
•  Netherlands
  • 1989: for the album Songs in Wite Satin

Platinum record

•  Canada
  • 1978: for the album In Search of the Lost Chord
  • 1978: for the album Days of Future Passed
  • 1978: for the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favor
  • 1978: for the album On the Threshold of a Dream
  • 1978: for the album Seventh Sojourn
  • 1978: for the album Octave
  • 1978: for the album This Is the Moody Blues
  • 1979: for the album To Our Children's Children's Children
  • 1986: for the album The Other Side of Life
•  Netherlands
  • 1980: for the album The Moody Blues Story

3 × platinum record

•  Canada
  • 1981: for the album Long Distance Voyager

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Canada (MC)	-	3 × gold3	12 × platinum12	1,350,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	platinum1	150,000	nvpi.nl
United States (RIAA)	-	7 × gold7th	6 × platinum6th	9,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	6 × silver6th	2 × gold2	platinum1	1,000,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	6 × silver6th	13 × gold13	20 × platinum20th

solo

Justin Hayward & John Lodge

• Blue Jays

Justin Hayward

• Songwriter
• Night flight
• Moving Mountains
• Classic Blue (with Mike Batt)
• The View From the Hill
• Live in San Juan Capistrano
• Justin Hayward and Friends Sing the Moody Blues Classic Hits
• Spirits of the Western Sky

John Lodge

• Natural Avenue
• 10,000 Light Years Ago

Ray Thomas

• From Mighty Oaks
• Hopes, Wishes & Dreams

Michael Pinder

• The Promise
• Among the stars

Graeme Edge Band

• Kick Off Your Muddy Boots (1975)
• Paradise Ballroom (1977)

literature

• Higher & Higher / The Moody Blues Magazine, ed. by Mark Murley and Randy Salas, Geneva (USA), issues # 1 (1984) to # 50 (2006), then discontinued.
• Victor Rust: The Moody Blues Encyclopaedia , Volumes 1 & 2, Pembury (Kent) 2008. The volumes are also an encyclopedia of the wings .
• Jürgen Wanda: Blue Guitar - the history of MOODY BLUES . 1st edition U. Zimmermann, Balve: 1996 ISBN 3-925005-74-9 .
• US singles: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006 . Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 . / US albums: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006 . Billboard Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 .

swell

1. ↑ according to Starostin, cf. Web link "Detailed Reviews"
2. ↑ Rob Chapman in The Guardian , accessed June 14, 2020
3. ↑ According to setlist.fm , their last appearances so far were in October and November 2018.
4. ↑ See statements from Lodge (in Their Full Story : “We're all of that, we're the Moody Blues”); similar to Edge and Hayward (in Legend of a Band ), Hayward also again in Isle of Wight (DVD)
5. ↑ www.moodybluestoday.com: The Band. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
6. ↑ See Gary James' undated interview with Mike Pinder: The Moody Blues Interview .
7. ↑ Curiously, it is unclear which was the A-side; the sources differ, but statements by producer Alex Wharton suggest that it was Steal Your Heart Away , see [1] , found and accessed on brumbeat.net on September 10, 2017
8. ↑ The song Top Tank Suite from the album Octave (1978) recalls that time
9. ↑ Hans van Rij and Ernie Havers in Hit Week No. 10 from November (!) 1966, page 5; At the time of publication, the article was actually already obsolete, which the opening credits attempt to intercept
10. ↑ In Search of the Lost Moody Blues Album , found and looked up (better late than never) on brumbeat.net on September 10, 2017
11. ↑ explained track list ibid [2] , accessed on September 10, 2017
12. ↑ In the Record Mirror of October 8th, Ray Thomas says that you don't know what to do next and you have to speak to Epstein (here quoted from the Tourbooks fansite  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatic marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on January 8, 2016)  
13. ↑ "manchesterbeat.com" website on the Factotums (English) , accessed on September 7, 2018; According to Knowles, the management of the Moody Blues asked him on November 4th of that year
14. ↑ See article in www.moodybluestoday.com ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). 
15. ↑ www.timesonline.co.uk: Tony Clarke: record producer . Accessed January 25, 2010
16. ↑ Woodstock poster with band announcement ( memento of the original from January 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
17. ↑ Justin Hayward on the Classic 7 Remasters, Interview with Mark Murley, in: Higher & Higher # 50 / Summer 2006, p. 29, translated from English by JustinCase
18. ↑ Blazek, Matthias: "30 years ago: The heyday of rock music: The Moody Blues", in: DF-Journal 80 / February 1998, Fontainebleau 1998, p. 3
19. ↑ In the meantime, Hayward expresses himself again emphatically positive about Pinder and his essential role in the band, for example in "Hayward on Threshold", Interview by Mark Murley, Higher & Higher No. 46/47 (2004)
20. ↑ The Melody Maker named the publication of Your Wildest Dreams in its July 5, 1986 issue “(…) the materialization of the worst fears of a nation. This, the first wave of the New Regression, is spearheaded by a gaggle of crusty vets probably unfamiliar to teenage readers, who think (not ready for print) means John Lydon. ”This judgment applied simultaneously to ELP and Jethro Tull .
21. ↑ But see his homepage www.raythomas.me .
22. ↑ Bon Jovi, Nina Simone, Moody Blues, others inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foxnews, accessed November 9, 2018 (English)
23. ↑ Text and photo on Pinder's homepage , accessed on November 10, 2018
24. ^ Sculley, Alan: "Moody Blues puts its focus on live shows," in: North County Times (Detroit) v. June 27, 2007
25. ↑ Hierholzer, Michael: “Luscious sound, great feeling”, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of October 30, 2008
26. ↑ http://www.bjharvest.co.uk/gone.htm
27. ↑ Interview in Rolling Stone , accessed December 15, 2017.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Germany Austria Switzerland UK USA
29. ^ British Hit Singles & Albums , 18th Edition, Guinness World Records Limited 2005, ISBN 9781904994008
30. ↑ Go Now by The Moody Blues , Songfacts, accessed May 23, 2014
31. ↑ Nights in White Satin achieved its best ranking in 1967/68 only in Germany (place 18/13 weeks) and Switzerland (place 6/7 weeks), in Great Britain it came in place 19 (11 weeks), in the USA it came in 3rd place the bubbling under charts. The song did not get on the Billboard Hot 100 until 1972, in Great Britain it rose to number 9 (11 weeks), in Germany it reached number 27 (8 weeks). The song was twice placed in the UK charts (1979 number 14/12 weeks and 2010 number 51/1 week), in Switzerland and Austria it was one week each in 2013 (41 and 55 respectively).
32. ^ The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll , Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
33. ↑ DE-Singles: Hitbilanz Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980, Günter Ehnert (Ed.), Taurus Press 1987, ISBN 3-922542-24-7
34. ↑ Belgian Charts (Vlaanderen / Hitstatistieken), enter the song title under “ZOEK”; visited on November 21, 2014
35. ↑ cf. Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees

Web links

Commons : The Moody Blues  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Moody Blues
• Detailed reviews of all albums up to and including Strange Times (by George Starostin, English)
• Tony Brown's Moody Blues Gallery (English; the pages on Rod Clark are missing in the navigation, but can be called up under [3] )
• Homepages of Justin Hayward , John Lodge , Ray Thomas , Mike Pinder , Norda Mullen , Alan Hewitt , Julie Ragins , Bernie Barlow , Sue Shattock (now Susan Govali) and Bekka Bramlett
• Biographical information on Bias Boshell , an interview with Alan Hewitt ( Memento from July 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• The Moody Blues at Discogs (English)