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by The Moody Blues

Overview

The Moody Blues were in the right place at the right time with the right product to benefit from all the hoopla that surrounded the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the spring of 1967. As pop music drifted into the resulting Summer of Love and its attendant psychedelia, the Moody Blues released Days of Future Passed, a concept album of sorts that presented an archetypal day through pop songs embedded in conductor and arranger Peter Knight's languid and inspired orchestrations. The whole project struck a chord with the Summer of Love crowd and yielded a pair of unlikely AM hits, "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon." Part prog rock, part easy pop, and either profound or bombastic depending on one's point of view, the band kept things rolling with a string of lushly recorded hits, with member Mike Pinder's Mellotron standing in for the orchestra (Pinder, unlike many rock musicians who picked up on the Mellotron in those heady days, actually knew how to play it). This 11-track Icon collection presents the band's essential singles, including "Nights in White Satin," "Tuesday Afternoon," "Ride My See-Saw," "Question," "The Story in Your Eyes," "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)," and others. They may have known a whole lot less philosophically than their songs hinted they did, but the Moody Blues certainly had the right set of songs and the right musical setting to put together a nice legacy. The group's albums can seem a bit pretentious and even ponderous all these years on, but this concise set shows that they were a pretty darn good singles band when all was said and done. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	07/19/2011
Label:	Polydor
UPC:	0600753348703
Rank:	21615

Tracks

1. Nights in White Satin
2. Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)
3. Ride My See-Saw
4. Question
5. The Story in Your Eyes
6. Isn't Life Strange
7. I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)
8. Gemini Dream
9. The Voice
10. Your Wildest Dreams
11. I Know You're Out There Somewhere

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Moody Blues   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Andy Martel   Art Research
Tony Clarke   Producer
Kevin Reeves   Mastering
Tony Visconti   Producer
John Lodge   Composer
Jill Ettinger   Product Manager
Richard Nelson   Back Cover,Cover Art
Justin Hayward   Composer
Harry Weinger   Compilation Supervisor
Pip Williams   Producer
Ryan Rogers   Design
Chrissy Telleck   Production Manager