Within the timeless flight of the Moody Blues, “Nights In White Satin” is such a traditional that it’s unusual to recount the gradual, virtually faltering progress of this epic ballad when it was first launched.
Justin Hayward’s track, and its dad or mum album, the Moodies’ career-changing Days Of Future Handed, have been each launched on November 10, 1967 — and for the primary few weeks of their lives, the sum complete of their UK chart presence was exactly nil.
However step by step, the group’s new marriage of pop and orchestral substances started to show heads. With the extra points of interest of Mike Pinder’s keyboard results on the Mellotron, little-used in fashionable music to that time, and Ray Thomas’ flute, each the one and the album started to seize the creativeness of each the general public and the media.
“Satin” could have had an unsure begin, however few singles have gone on to such recurring and multi-faceted success, each within the UK and world wide. After attracting radio assist, the one on Decca’s Deram label lastly made the British High 50 within the first week of 1968, some seven weeks after launch.
It was the primary chart look of the Moodies’ new line-up, retooled with the addition of Hayward and John Lodge. This was additionally the primary time the group title had been on the UK singles record for greater than two years, since “Everyday” limped to No.44.
Even then, “Satin” solely simply clambered onto the underside rung of the High 50, as The Beatles continued at No.1 into the brand new yr with “Hello Goodbye.” The ballad then climbed to No.35, making lower than spectacular progress over the approaching weeks earlier than coming to a halt at No.19 on the February 20 chart. It fared significantly better elsewhere, going all the way in which to No.1 in 1968 in Holland, and reaching the High 10 in Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, and the High 20 in Germany.
A unbroken chart story
The preliminary UK exercise was sufficient to kick-start Days Of Future Handed, which confirmed up on the bestsellers for the primary time in late January 1968 and obtained as excessive as No.27 in each February and March. The album reappeared every so often over the subsequent few years, making its final displaying in 1973. By then, with the Moodies established as a significant album and touring power, “Nights In White Satin” had belatedly turn into a large hit, reaching No.2 in Billboard and No.1 within the rival Money Field countdown.
That transatlantic success, in flip, prompted the primary reissue of “Satin” within the UK, the place it charted anew and have become a a lot greater hit second time round. The track spent three weeks within the High 10 in late 1972 and early 1973, touchdown at No.9. In 1979, it rose as soon as once more, in a brand new 12-week run that gave it one other 5 weeks within the High 20 and a No.9 peak.
This historic recording even managed one additional chart week in 2010, prompted by a efficiency of the track by the eventual winner of that yr’s X Issue collection, Matt Cardle. These satin sheets that impressed Justin Hayward have been product of probably the most enduring materials.
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