The Beatles film their promotional videos for their new single "Hello Goodbye" at The Saville Theatre in London. In all, three versions were filmed with edited bits from each making the final cut. It is a very entertaining video, showing The Beatles dressed in their full Sgt. Pepper garb ... as well as their original gray collarless suits!
Because of a recent BBC-Television Union ruling banning any miming for television appearances by singers and musicians, the clip was never shown in Great Britain … but on November 17th Neil Aspinall flew copies of these brand new "music videos" to The USA. On November 26th, version one would be shown on The Ed Sullivan Show. (Incredibly on the November 21st edition of "Top Of The Pops", the new single "Hello Goodbye" was played over muted footage from "A Hard Day's Night" in observance of the miming ban. The Beatles were reportedly furious!)
A new Moody Blues single is released today. “Nights In White Satin” (inspired when 19 year old Justin Hayward was given satin sheets!) is a remarkable advancement in rock and roll music, merging rock and classical music as one. (And yet these guys STILL aren’t in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!!!)
UPDATE: The Moody Blues FINALLY got nominated for the Class of 2018.
The record will reach #19 on The British Chart but only peak at #93 here in America (and even then, not for another four months!)
UPDATE: The Moody Blues FINALLY got nominated for the Class of 2018.
The record will reach #19 on The British Chart but only peak at #93 here in America (and even then, not for another four months!)
After a string of hits between 1968 and 1972, Deram Records will re-release “Nights In White Satin” in 1972, FIVE YEARS after it was first recorded. This time it goes all the way to #1 (everywhere except Billboard, where it peaks at #2). Today it is considered a pop standard and a musical masterpiece.
From Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March ...
British Decca Records subsidiary label Deram released the
Moody Blues' masterwork album "Days of Future Passed" on November 10,
1967. Among the first "concept" recordings, it was a brilliantly
innovative fusion of rock and symphonic music. All but two of the tracks were
more than five minutes long. "Nights In White Satin" was 7:41.
Initially, Decca executives opposed releasing the album, as Ray Thomas
explained. "Every Tuesday, record producers took all their wares and went
before the record company executives to play what they had done that week, to
determine what they thought was worth backing. They were very strict, but we
were lucky because a guy called Walt McGuire, who was head of London Records,
which was American Decca, was at the meeting. [Producer] Tony Clarke went in
and he put 'Days of Future Passed' on and the Decca executives sat through it
and they said, 'What the hell is that? You spent a whole week -- a whole week,
mind you -- in the studio.' Walt McGuire said, 'I think it's fantastic! If
you're not going to release it over here, give it to me, because I am.' The
Decca people said, 'Well, we spent all that studio time, we might as well
release it," Ray told authors Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March for their
book "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? Volume 2." American AM
"top 40" radio stations, accustomed to playing records under three
minutes long, weren't sure what to do with it. But it was perfect for newly
emerging "progressive rock" FM radio stations, many of which let the
entire album play without interruption. "Days of Future Passed"
became a must-have album for the hip listeners of FM rock stations.
"Nights In White Satin" gave the band a long-awaited singles hit,
reaching No. 19 on the British charts in January 1968.
In fact, The Moody Blues may have put together the first true rock concept album ... almost a symphony of sorts ... yet it was The Beatles took home all the glory for their "Sgt. Pepper," which (in terms of concept anyway) really only extended to a total of four songs (the first and last two) ... everything else were just unrelated tracks ... but because they SAID it was a concept album (the idea of portraying somebody else in order to step outside the comfort zone of being The Beatles), the public ... and the critics ... bought the whole idea. In hindsight it may be safest to say that The Moody Blues created a concept album with "Days Of Future Passed" ... while "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was more of a cultural and media event. (kk)
