Nights in White Satin

For the Giorgio Moroder album, see Knights in White Satin.

"Nights in White Satin"
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)
Label	Deram Records
Writer(s)	Justin Hayward
Producer	Tony Clarke
The Moody Blues singles chronology
"Love and Beauty" (1967) "Nights in White Satin" (1967) "Tuesday Afternoon" (1968)
Days of Future Passed track listing Side one "The Day Begins" Dawn: "Dawn is a Feeling" The Morning: "Another Morning" Lunch Break: "Peak Hour" Side two The Afternoon: "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" Evening: "The Sunset" / "Twilight Time" The Night: "Nights in White Satin" Music sample "Nights in White Satin"

"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 Aeolian.^[2]

Single releases

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".^{[citation needed]}

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.

Late Lament

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.

False claim of authorship - Les Jelly Roll

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]

Personnel

• Justin Hayward: lead vocal, acoustic guitar
• John Lodge: backing vocal, bass guitar
• Mike Pinder: backing vocal, mellotron, narration (on "Late Lament"), gong
• Ray Thomas: backing vocal, flute, percussion
• Graeme Edge: backing vocal, drums, percussion
• Peter Knight and the London Festival Orchestra: orchestral arrangements

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
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)

Theme park attraction and other uses

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.^{[citation needed]}

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]

Other uses of the song

• This song is featured in the 1992 film, Split Second
• This song is featured in Robert De Niros's 1993 film, A Bronx Tale
• This song is featured in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film, "Casino (film)".
• This song is featured in Adam Sandler's 2006 film, Click (film)"
• This song is featured in Rob Zombie's 2009 film, Halloween II
• This song is featured in Bertrand Bonello's 2011 film, House of Tolerance
• This song is featured in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a novel by Stephen Chbosky as it appears on a music playlist by the novel's protagonist, Charlie.

Sandra version

"Nights in White Satin"
Single by Sandra
from the album Fading Shades
Released	March 1995
Format	CD single 12" single
Recorded	1995
Genre	Synthpop
Length	3:35
Label	Virgin
Writer(s)	Justin Hayward
Producer	Michael Cretu
Sandra singles chronology
"Maria Magdalena '93" (1993) "Nights in White Satin" (1995) "Won't Run Away" (1995)

"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]

Formats and track listings

CD single ^[6]

1. "Nights in White Satin" - 3:35
2. "Nights in White Satin" (techno mix) - 5:29

CD Maxi-single ^[7]

1. "Nights in White Satin" - 3:35
2. "Nights in White Satin" (club mix) - 6:05
3. "Nights in White Satin" (techno mix) - 5:29
4. "Nights in White Satin" (jungle mix) - 6:09
5. "Nights in White Satin" (dub version) - 4:02

12" single ^[8]

1. "Nights in White Satin" (club mix) - 6:05
2. "Nights in White Satin" (techno mix) - 5:29
3. "Nights in White Satin" (jungle mix) - 6:09
4. "Nights in White Satin" (dub version) - 4:02

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak Position
German Singles Chart	86
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[9]	34

Other cover versions

• Franck Pourcel (Instrumental) 1967
• Beavers (サテンの夜 on their Viva! Beavers! album, 1968)
• I Nomadi "Ho difeso il mio amore" (Nights in White Satin) on I Nomadi (album, 1968)
• Patricia "Mes rêves de satin", French version (1968)
• Dalida Un Po D'amore (1968)
• Marie Rottrová (Flamingo) - "Slunce vstává", Czech version (1969)
• Billie Davis (Decca F12977, single, 1969)
• Eric Burdon and War (The Black-Man's Burdon album, 1970)
• Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge, "The Brooklyn Bridge" (album, 1970)
• Samuel Lilith "Nights in White Satin", (single, 1970, Australia)
• Deodato (Deodato 2 album, 1973)
• Juliane Werding "Wildes Wasser", German version (single, 1973)
• Giorgio Moroder (Knights in White Satin album, 1976)
• Bermuda Triangle Band (Bermuda Triangle album, 1977)
• The Dickies (Dawn of the Dickies album, 1979)
• Carlos Futura Sound Fantasy album 1979
• Marie Laforêt "Blanche nuit de satin", French version (single, 1982)
• Elkie Brooks (UK #32 Chart Hit 1982) (Pearls II album, 1982)
• Jon St. James (Trans-Atlantic, 1984)
• The Shadows (Moonlight Shadows album, 1986) (Instrumental version)
• Jacky Cheung (昨夜夢魂中 (In My Dream Last Night) on his 昨夜夢魂中 album, 1988)
• James Last (Instrumental) 1991
• Alain Bashung (Osez Josephine album, 1991)
• David Lanz (Skyline Firedance album, 1992)^[10]
• Sandra (Fading Shades album, 1995)
• Nancy Sinatra (One More Time album, 1995)
• Lucie Bílá "Noc je jak satén" - Czech version (1998)
• Sort Sol (Snakecharmer album, 2001)
• Mario Frangoulis (Nights in White Satin - Notte Di Luce on his Sometimes I Dream album, 2002)
• The Vision Bleak (Nights in White Satin - on Songs of Good Taste Demo, 2002)
• God is an Astronaut ("NIWS", The End Of The Beginning album, 2002)
• Tori Amos Covered this song several times on tour during 2003 and 2005
• John Cowan and Moody Bluegrass, (Moody Bluegrass album, 2004)
• Declan Galbraith (Thank You album, 2006)
• Il Divo (Notte Di Luce on their Siempre album, 2006)
• Glenn Hughes with John Frusciante and Chad Smith (Music For The Divine album, 2006) (Used in the movie Stealth)
• Quidam (track07 "Nights in White Satin", "HalfPlugged" album, 2007)
• Irish duo RUA recorded a version on their 2007 album 'WHISPER'
• Tina Arena on her album Songs of Love & Loss II, 2008
• Midnight Movies (Nights EP, 2008)
• Fariborz Lachini A Solo Piano version on his Golden Memories 1 album, 2008
• Diane di Stasio ("Nights in White Satin", "Vox Eterna" album, 2009)
• Collide (These Eyes Before album, 2009)^[11]
• Cemetery Of Scream (Frozen Images album, 2009)
• Powers of The Monk (Killing Time album, 2009)
• Eugene McCarthy ("De Barras, Sitting Room Sessions" 2010)
• Zeds Dead (Dubstep Remix 2010)
• Will Martin (Inspirations album, 2010)
• The Man-Eating Tree (on their Vine album, 2010)
• Bettye LaVette (Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook album, 2010)
• Gerry & The Pacemakers - Nights in White Satin
• Offer Nissim featuring Ivri Lider - Nights in White Satin (Offer Nissim Remix)
• Jennifer Rush
• Damien Saez (multiple live performances)
• Celtic Thunder (Performed by Celtic Thunder member Paul Byrom)
• Blumfeld (B-Side of Single Tics and live performances)
• Rock Goddess (Live performances)
• Ed Kavalee On Get This
• Matt Cardle (B-Side To The When We Collide Single)
• Donald Braswell II on his 2011 album, Unchained

References

1. ^ http://www.pandora.com/music/song/moody+blues/nights+in+white+satin
2. ^ Stephenson, Ken (2002). What to Listen for in Rock: A Stylistic Analysis, p.39. ISBN 9780300092394.
3. ^ Mercier, Jacques (Sept 2004). "Sayings by Jacques Mercier, member of Les Jelly Roll [interview from Club Des Années 60 magazine (look at very bottom of page)]" (in french). Golf Drouot website. http://golfdrouot.ifrance.com/ricbent.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02. [1]^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Cherney, Mike (May 13, 2009). "Freestyle Music Park Fills Out Offerings". The Sun News. http://www.thesunnews.com/business/story/897614.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ sandra-cretu.narod.ru
6. ^ discogs.com
7. ^ discogs.com
8. ^ discogs.com
9. ^ australian-charts.com
10. ^ "Skyline Firedance overview". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r83302. 
11. ^ http://www.collide.net/news/2009/10/these-eyes-before.shtml

External links

• Information on the song from BBC Radio 2

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