♫ Nights In White Satin ♫

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Band member Justin Hayward wrote and composed the song at age 19 in Swindon, and titled the song after a girlfriend 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. Hayward said of the song, “It was just another song I was writing and I thought it was very powerful. It was a very personal song and every note, every word in it means something to me and I found that a lot of other people have felt that very same way about it.”

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 “Les Jelly Roll” and taken credit for it. This claim seems to have arisen from the discovery of a 7″ single by the Jelly Roll which carries the words “This is the original version of Nights in White Satin” on the label.

“Les Jelly Roll” was a French band who did a cover version 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. As a joke, they put the now-famous sentence on the cover.

The poem at the end was recorded separately. It is called Late Lament and was written by their drummer, Graeme Edge. The poem was read by keyboard player Mike Pinder.

Nights in White Satin (The Night)
The Moody Blues

Nights in white satin
Never reaching the end
Letters I’ve written
Never meaning to send

Beauty I’d always missed
With these eyes before
Just what the truth is
I can’t say any more

‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you

Gazing at people, some hand in hand
Just what I’m going through they can’t understand
Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend
Just what you want to be, you will be in the end

And I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you

Nights in white satin
Never reaching the end
Letters I’ve written
Never meaning to send

Beauty I’ve always missed
With these eyes before
Just what the truth is
I can’t say any more

‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you
‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you

Songwriters: Justin Hayward
Nights in White Satin (The Night) lyrics © T.R.O. Inc.

34 thoughts on “♫ Nights In White Satin ♫”

  1. Oh bliss! Oh bliss! Ohhhhh bliss!
    I still have the vinyl album, bought in 1967, for the sum of £1.12s 6d = £1.63p =$2.14c.
    Annddd if it hadn’t been for the lyrics of ‘Watching & Waiting’ off the album ‘Dedicated to Our Children’s, Children’s, Children’; Sheila and I might never have got together. (long story)

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    • Wow!!! I’m chuffed that you like it so much! Ooohhh … now my curiosity is piqued and I’ll be wanting that story someday! By the way … speaking of your gorgeous wife … please tell her I received my book today! I will email her later this evening. I’m amazed … I sent Easter cards to a friend and her children and they still haven’t gotten them. Last month I sent a card to the UK and it took 16 days. But coming here from the UK is always much faster! Headwinds from the East?

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  2. Good song by The Moody Blues, though I still like “Go Now” better. No other facts and trivia on them, I never followed them closely. On Elvis I could have given you endless facts and trivia, although they were garnered second hand from my youngest. I spared you that on yesterday’s comment! When you have a shrine that holds every record, movie, and memorabilia…you learn. When you have endlessly seen and heard all of that for years…it becomes ingrained. No worries though, rawgod took good care of The Moody Blues! David’s comment moved me to share another framed quote that hangs in the Elvis Room : “Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside.” He had a way with words! Thank-you!

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    • I had to go listen to “Go Now”, for it wasn’t ringing any bells, but it IS a good song, and you can expect to see it pop up here one of these days! You know … that quote … that is SO true! Music does make you just ‘gotta move’, else it falls flat. Hugs Ellen!

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      • Since you found this quote to your liking, go back to “Suspicious Minds” for the other Elvis quote that was at the end of my too long comment, that I think you missed. I like that quote better! As for “Go Now”, a worthy song…not as good in my opinion as the other group’s song that I suggested! Thank-you!

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        • AAAaaarrrrggggghhhh! I did miss that comment … well, no, I didn’t actually miss it, but it was late and I still had things I had to finish and I was tired, so i set it aside and made a mental note to pick it back up first thing the next morning. In my current state of mind, mental notes are no good … they get shredded and digested, but never remembered. I shall return to that one post haste! And … not giving anything away, but I think you’ll like tomorrow’s song, WHICH has been planted in my head ever since I listened to it to refresh my memory after reading your email! 🙂 ♫

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  3. Jill, this is a marvelous song, by a tremendous group. “Tuesday Afternoon,” “Ride my Seesaw,” and this one stand out, but there are several other good ones. Keith

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      • Adding to Tuesday Afternoon from Keith, I will give Question and also Talking out of turn as tracks you should hear if you don’t already know them.They had brilliant albums like In Search of the Lost Chord and Long Distance Voyager which was a great compilation.
        Cwtch

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        • I will check those out tomorrow. I imagine I have heard, but simply forgotten the names … I’ve told you before that I cannot remember names, song titles, etc. Some days, however, I do manage to remember my own name, and then I am chuffed. If you had but one request … any artist, any song … what would it be?
          Cwtch

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          • Oh that’s hard. I want Kiss an Say Goodbye by the Manhattans at my funeral alongside I’m in a Different World, Cool Eh. How about Desiderata by Les Crane.or Goodbye Ruby Tuesday by Melanie. I think that would be my request. This is a very hard question.
            Cwtch

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            • Hmmm … I’m not sure I want to play the music you wish played at your funeral … it might be a jinx or something. I thought you weren’t having a funeral? Ah well, I’ve already played “I’m in a Different World” twice this year, so I’ll put the other three on the list.
              Cwtch

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              • I shan’t be having a religious funeral for sure. Whether or not I have an actual funeral depends on whether I can raise the funds for my body to be taken away and disposed of sans anything but a cremation. Then those would be he songs played at a small family gathering….if they chose too. Yvonne has already decided she wants the ashes back.
                Ctch

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                • No, I knew it wouldn’t be a religious ceremony, but I can see a small family gathering … in maybe 32 years or so. And, I understand Yvonne’s take on that, but I sometimes think it’s only a painful reminder to keep them around. I don’t know … I have mixed thoughts on that. I rather want mine scattered into the wind, or the sea.

                  And what are you doing up already at just after midnight???

                  Cwtch

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  9. Great song. GREATER ALBUM! Though the Moodys had been around for years, their first cross the ocean hit being 1965’s Go Now, they then disappeared from the British Invasion, and resurfaced with their first, and arguably finest, concept album: Days of Future Past, the first of many great albums. Tuesday Afternoon was another big hit from this album. It was so different from anything anyone else was putting out at the time. It took a while to catch on, but eventually it blew people away, including me. WOW, Jill, for bringing back the memories.

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