Nights in White Satin – The Moody Blues (Easy Piano Solo sheet music)
The Moody Blues
Band from Birmingham (England), founded in 1964.
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With Denny Laine in their ranks and songs like “Go Now”, “Let Me Go”, “He Can Win” or “And My Baby’s Gone”, The Moody Blues began their career at Decca performing great R&B music; but the authentic R&B, not the modern party soul, thousands of light years from the soul of Motown or Stax, I don’t know why the hell they call it R&B, confusing the staff since it has nothing to do, except their black roots, with the exciting R&B of the 50s and 60s. Well, it doesn’t matter…
At the end of the 60s, with the departure of Laine from the group and the entry of Justin Hayward, the Moody Blues abandoned these early sounds to embrace psychedelia, prog-rock and orchestral sounds, achieving immortality thanks to the song “Nights In White Satin” and magnificent albums like “Days Of Future Passed” , “On The Treshold Of a Dream” or “In The Search Of The Lost Chord”.
The band, managed by Tony Secunda (who also took over the career of the Move ), originally consisted of singer/guitarist Denny Laine (born October 29, 1944 in Jersey), keyboardist/vocalist Mike Pinder (born December 12, 1942, in Birmingham), vocalist, flute and harmonica player Ray Thomas (born December 29, 1942, in Stourport on Severn), bassist Clint Warwick (born June 25, 1940, in Birmingham) and drummer Graeme Edge (born March 30, 1941, in Rochester).
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Before joining the quintet, its members had already played in different bands, Thomas and Pinder having shared a group in projects such as El Riot & The Rebels or The Krew Cats, a band that came, like the Beatles, to play in Hamburg .
For his part, Denny Laine had been the leader of Denny & The Diplomats, and Graeme Edge was part of Gerry Levene & The Avengers. Converted into the Moody Blues, they recorded the single “Lose Your Money (But Don’t Lose Your Mind)” at Decca in 1964, a rhythmic song written by the Laine/Pinder couple that passed unnoticed through the stores of albums, quite the opposite of the following, “Go Now”, a song written by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett, previously recorded by Bessie Banks, which took them to number 1 in the United Kingdom and 10 in the United States in 1964.
A year later other singles appeared: “I Don’t Want To Go On Without You” (number 33), a song written by Jerry Wexler and producer Bert Berns; “From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)” (number 22), composed by Laine and Pinder, as was “Everyday” (number 44).
All of these tracks are found on their debut LP, “The Magnificent Moodies” (1965) , lavishly expanded on subsequent reissues with sensational songs found only at the time in single format.
Although the sales of their latest singles had not been trivial after achieving a number 1 with “Go Now”, the group was somewhat disappointed with the commercial response, especially the great songs “Boulevard De La Madelaine” and “Life’s Not Life”.
This fact caused the group to vary its formation in a very important way.
Clint Warwick left the Moody Blues, now represented by Brian Epstein, replaced by another member of El Riot & The Rebels, bassist and vocalist John Lodge (born July 20, 1945 in Birmingham), and key band member thus far, Denny Laine, who was replaced by singer/guitarist Justin Hayward (born 14 October 1946 in Swindon).
Laine rose to fame in the 1970s with Paul McCartney as part of the Wings.
The new Moody Blues released “Days Of Future Passed” (1967) , a great conceptual album produced by Tony Clarke and orchestrated by Pete Knight with the participation of the London Festival Orchestra.
It offered psychedelic and progressive sounds exemplified in the Hayward-penned single “Nights In White Satin” (number 19 in 1967).
The LP was more successful in the United States than in his own country, reaching number 3 on Billboard and 27 in England.
They had previously released the singles “Fly Me High”, composed by Hayward, and “Love And Beauty”, written by Mike Pinder.
“In The Search Of The Lost Chord” (1968), with mellotron sounds (Pinder being a master of the instrument), extended the psychedelic, lyrical and conceptual sound of this new stage and continued to increase his international audience, both in his performances in direct as in the sale of his vinyls, which in the United Kingdom took him to number 5.
Among the tracks on “In The Search Of The Lost Chord” are the singles “Voices In The Sky” (number 27) and “Ride My See-Saw” (number 42).
“On The Threshold Of a Dream” (1969) reached number 1 in Great Britain thanks to songs like “Lovely To See You” or the single “Never Comes The Day”; while “To Our Children’s Children” (1969), released on his own Threshold Records label, peaked at number 2.
If the end of the decade had been great for the Moody Blues, the beginning of the 70s was the same or even better, since both “Question Of Balance” (1970), with the single “Question” (number 2), and the phenomenal “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” (1971) reached the top in the UK and number 2 in the US.
The desire to fly solo on the part of its different members meant that, at the peak of their career, the group ceased their activities for a long time after publishing the LP “Seventh Sojourn” (1972), a very appreciable album with songs like “For My Lady”, “New Horizons”, “Lost In A Lost World”, “Isn’t Life Strange” or “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock’n’Roll Band)” that raised them to number 5 in the UK and to number 1 in the US.
Justin Hayward and John Lodge released the album “Blue Jays” (1975). Hayward and Lodge made their solo debut years later with, respectively, “Songwriter” (1977) and “Natural Avenue” (1977).
Pinder had started his solo career with “The Promise” (1976), as had Thomas with “From Mighty Oaks” (1976) and Edge with his Graeme Edge Band and the album “Kick Off Your Muddy Boots” (1975).
At the end of the 70s, the Moody Blues got together again to record “Octave” (1978), an album that returned them to number 1 on the British charts.
A year earlier they had prepared their comeback by releasing the live album “Caught Live + 5” (1977), an album that included performances by the group in the 1960s.
After “Octave”, Mike Pinder, a very important piece in the band’s classic sound, was replaced by Patrick Moraz.
In the decades that followed, The Moody Blues recorded studio works such as “Long Distance Voyager” (1981) and “The Present” (1983), both produced by Pip Williams, “The Other Side Of Life” (1986), “Sur La Mer” (1988) and “Keys Of The Kingdom” (1991), all produced by Tony Visconti, or “Strange Times” (1999), without Moraz and with keyboards by Danilo Madonia, and “December” (2003) , without the participation of Ray Thomas.
The latter died on January 4, 2018 after suffering from prostate cancer. He was 76 years old.
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In 2010, the live show “Live At The Royal Albert Hall” (2010) was released.
In 2016 his song “Life’s Not Life” was included in “Let’s Go Down And Blow Our Minds: The British Psychedelic Sounds Of 1967”, a 3-CD box set released by Cherry Red Records with psychedelic sounds.
In 2017, “Question” was played on the double vinyl “Hi-Fidelity (A Taste Of Stereo Sound)”.
In 2018 the live “Days Of Future Passed Live” (2018) appeared, with the single “Say It With Love”; and “Tuesday Afternoon” was included in the “Mai 68 Revolution” compilation, a 4-CD box set published by Universal with music that played during the period of the May 68 revolution.
The same year his song “Lose Your Money (But Don’t Lose Your Mind)” was included in “Fab Gear (The British Beat Explosion And Its Aftershocks 1963-1967” (2018), a 6-CD box set released by RPM with 185 songs by bands from the British Invasion of the 60s. In 2018 Universal released a 5-CD box set, titled “Mod” (2018), in which the song “And My Baby’s Gone” plays.
Sony, also in 2018, included their classic “Nights In White Satin” in “Chilled 60s” (2018), a triple CD with 60 songs by different artists from the 60s. It opens with Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross ” and closes with Santana ‘s “Soul Sacrifice” .
That year they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, presented by Ann Wilson of the group Heart .
In 2019, Decca included their 1967 single, “Love And Beauty”, in “The Psychedelic Scene” (2019), an open double vinyl with the song “Vacuum Cleaner” by Tintern Abbey.
Graeme Edge passed away, due to cancer, on November 11, 2021 in Sarasola, Florida (United States).
He was 80 years old.