"Nights in White Satin" | |||||||||||||
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Single by The Moody Blues | |||||||||||||
from the album Days of Future Passed | |||||||||||||
B-side | "Cities" | ||||||||||||
Released | 10 November 1967 | ||||||||||||
Recorded | 8 October 1967 | ||||||||||||
Genre | Symphonic rock, Baroque pop, Progressive rock[1] | ||||||||||||
Length | 7:38 (album) 3:06 (single edit #1) 4:26 (single edit #2) |
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Label | Deram Records | ||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Justin Hayward | ||||||||||||
Producer | Tony Clarke | ||||||||||||
The Moody Blues singles chronology | |||||||||||||
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"Nights in White Satin" is a 1967 single by The Moody Blues, written by Justin Hayward and first featured on the album Days of Future Passed.
It is in the key of E minor.[2]
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When first released in 1967, the song reached # 19 on the UK singles chart, a position that might have been higher were it not for its seven-plus minute length. The song was re-released in 1972 after the success of such longer-running dramatic songs as "Hey Jude" and "Layla", and it charted at #2 on Billboard magazine and #1 on Cash Box in the United States, earning a gold single for sales of a million copies and was also #1 in Canada. The song also holds the dubious distinction of the highest complete Hot 100 disappearance from the pre-digital download era, vanishing entirely from the chart after falling to #17. It was also released in Spanish as Noches de Seda at the same time. In the wake of its US success, the song re-charted in the UK in late 1972 and climbed to #9. The song was re-released yet again in 1979, and charted for a third time in the UK, at #14.
There are two single versions of the song, both stripped of the orchestral and "Late Lament" poetry sections of the LP version. The first edited version, with the songwriter's credit shown as "Redwave", was a hasty sounding 3:06 version of the LP recording with very noticeable chopped parts. For the second edited version (with the song's writing credited to Hayward), the early parts of the song were kept intact, ending early at 4:26. Both single versions were backed with a non-LP b-side, "Cities".
Band member Justin Hayward wrote the song at age 19 in Swindon, and titled the song after a friend gave him a gift of satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many aficionados to term it as a tale of unrequited love endured by Hayward. The London Festival Orchestra provided the orchestral accompaniment for the introduction, the final rendition of the chorus, and the "final lament" section, all of this in the original album version. The "orchestral" sounds in the main body of the song were actually produced by Mike Pinder's Mellotron keyboard device, which would come to define the "Moody Blues sound".
While largely ignored on its first release, the song has since garnered much critical acclaim, ranking #36 in BBC Radio 2's "Sold on Song Top 100" list.
The spoken-word poem, which is heard near the six-minute mark of the album version of the song, is called "Late Lament." It was written by drummer Graeme Edge and was read by keyboardist Mike Pinder. On Days of Future Passed, the poem's last five lines bracket the album, appearing also at the end of track 1 ("The Day Begins").
While "Late Lament" has been commonly known as part of "Nights in White Satin" with no separate credit on the original LP, it was given its own listing on the 2-LP compilation This Is The Moody Blues in 1974 and again in 1987 (without its parent song) on another compilation, Prelude. Both compilations feature the track in a slightly different form than on Days of Future Passed. Both spoken and instrumental tracks are given an echo effect. The orchestral ending is kept intact, but the gong (struck by Mike Pinder) that closes the track from the original LP is completely edited out.
From 1992 through the early 2000s, the Moody Blues toured with shows backed by live orchestras. While backed by the orchestra, "Late Lament" was often included in the performance of "Nights in White Satin." When it was included, Edge recited it himself, since Pinder was no longer with the band at that point.
In the late 1990s, the UK magazine "Record Collector" printed a claim that "Nights in White Satin" had not been written by Justin Hayward at all, but that in fact the Moody Blues' management had simply bought the song outright in 1966 from an Italian group called The Jelly Roll and taken credit for it. This spurious claim seems to have arisen from the discovery of a 7" single by The Jelly Roll which allegedly carries the words "This is the original version of Nights in White Satin" on the label. Actually, "Les Jelly Roll" was a French band who did this cover of the Moody Blues song, and had the opportunity to release it in Italy, on Ricordi (an Italian record label), a few months before the original was released there. So, as a joke (they appear not to have been a very serious band), they put the famous sentence on the cover.[3]
Year | Chart | Position |
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1967 | UK Singles Chart | 19 |
1972 | US Billboard Hot 100 | 2 |
1972 | UK Singles Chart | 9 |
1972 | Canada RPM number one single | 1 |
1972 | US Cash Box Top 100 singles | 1 |
1979 | UK Singles Chart | 14 |
2010 | UK Singles Chart | 51 (as of the 5th December) |
The work was reinterpreted as the focus of Nights in White Satin: The Trip, a dark ride at the Hard Rock Park (now Freestyle Music Park) theme park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA. The attraction, which included 3D-black light and fiber optic lighting effects and purpose-made films, was developed by Sally Corporation and Jon Binkowski of Hard Rock Park. Riders entered through a bead curtain, were provided 3-D glasses, and upon return were greeted, "how was your Trip?" Visual Effects, Digital CGI and Special Effects were designed, produced, and installed by Attraction Design Services; ride vehicles were from ETF.
The attraction operated as "The Trip" for the single 2008 season the park operated as Hard Rock Park, but was rethemed with the sale and retitling of the park; "park officials said the experience will be similar but the presentation will be changed."[4]
It is also featured in the Wiseguy episode "No One Gets Out of Here Alive", in the climactic scene between Vinnie Terranova and Sonny Steelgrave. This was removed in the DVD release.
The song is featured in the TV movie "The 70s".
"Nights in White Satin" | ||||
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Single by Sandra | ||||
from the album Fading Shades | ||||
Released | March 1995 | |||
Format | CD single 12" single |
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Recorded | 1995 | |||
Genre | Synthpop | |||
Length | 3:35 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Writer(s) | Justin Hayward | |||
Producer | Michael Cretu | |||
Sandra singles chronology | ||||
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"Nights in White Satin" is a dance-pop cover version performed by German singer Sandra. The song appeared on Sandra's sixth studio album Fading Shades (1995).
It was produced by Michael Cretu and received mixed reception from music critics. The song was released as the lead single in the spring of 1995 (see 1995 in music), although it failed to match the success of Sandra's previous singles. The song entered the Top twenty in Finland and Australia, but in Germany, it reached a peak of eighty-six, becoming her least successful lead single in that country to date. In the United Kingdom, it failed to enter the chart.
The music video, directed by Angel Hart, showed only close ups of Sandra's face as she was extremely pregnant at the time. She even had to sit during the recording sessions of the album. (Note that the Fading Shades album cover was taken from the music video.) [5]
Chart (1995) | Peak Position |
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German Singles Chart | 86 |
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[9] | 34 |
Preceded by "My Ding-a-Ling" by Chuck Berry |
RPM number one single (Canada) (The Moody Blues version) November 11, 1972 for one week |
Succeeded by "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson |
Preceded by "My Ding-a-Ling" by Chuck Berry |
Cash Box Top 100 singles (The Moody Blues version) November 4, 1972 for one week |
Succeeded by "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley |
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