Nights in White Satin

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

"Nights in White Satin"
French single sleeve
Single by the Moody Blues
from the album Days of Future Passed
B-side"Cities"
Released
  • 3 November 1967[1]
  • August 1972 (Re-release)
Recorded8 October 1967
Genre
Length
LabelDeram
Songwriter(s)Justin Hayward
Producer(s)Tony Clarke
The Moody Blues singles chronology
"Love and Beauty"
(1967) 		"Nights in White Satin"
(1967) 		"Tuesday Afternoon"
(1968)
Audio sample
"Nights in White Satin"

"Nights in White Satin" is a song by English rock band the Moody Blues, written by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album Days of Future Passed. When first released as a single in 1967, it reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and number 103 in the United States in 1968. It was the first significant chart entry by the band since "Go Now" and its recent lineup change, in which Denny Laine and Clint Warwick had resigned and both Hayward and John Lodge had joined.

When reissued in 1972, the single hit number two in the US for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash) and hit number one on the Cash Box Top 100, making it the band's most successful single in the US. It earned a gold certification for sales of over a million US copies (platinum certification was not instituted until 1976). It also hit number one in Canada. After two weeks at #2, it was replaced by "I'd Love You to Want Me" by Lobo. It reached its highest UK position this year at number 9. Although the song did not enter the official New Zealand chart, it reached number five on the New Zealand Listener's chart compiled from the readers' votes in 1973.[6] The 1972 single release of "Nights in White Satin" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[7]

The song enjoyed a recurring chart presence in the following decades. It charted again in the UK and Ireland in 1979 reaching numbers 14 and 8, respectively. The song charted again in 2010, reaching number 51 in the British Official Singles Charts.[8] It has also been covered by numerous other artists, most notably Giorgio Moroder, Elkie Brooks, and Sandra, and has been used in a variety of cultural mediums, including commercials and films.

  1. ^ Connolly, Ray (4 November 1967). "Ray Connolly on Discs". Evening Standard. p. 7. Retrieved 15 November 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Buskin, Richard (July 2009). "The Moody Blues 'Nights In White Satin'". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  3. ^ Murthl, R.S. (28 December 1994). "Pearl Jam's Vital Return". New Straits Times. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b Bosso, Joe (21 October 2014). "Classic tracks: Justin Hayward talks Nights In White Satin". MusicRadar.com. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (1999). All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. p. 104. ISBN 0-7535-0354-9. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
  6. ^ "flavour of new zealand - search listener". flavourofnz.co.nz. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  7. ^ https://www.grammy.com/awards/hall-of-fame-award#n [bare URL]
  8. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Singles Charts. 11 December 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2019.