Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions! Chris Moore and I got together to record our duo version of “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues — watch the video here.
About “Nights in White Satin”
Written by Justin Hayward, “Nights in White Satin” first appeared on the Moody Blues’ landmark 1967 album Days of Future Passed. Reissued as a single in 1972, it climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the band’s signature song, famous for its sweeping orchestration and dreamlike mood.
Taking on a song this iconic as a duo was a real honor — there’s no orchestra here, just Chris and me, so we leaned into the melody and the mood that make the song so timeless. I hope our version does it justice.
Welcome to this special report for the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my father about the best Moody Blues albums. My father is very opinionated and we had a nice argument about the subject. He decided to make a list. I’m not sure if it’s because we were arguing and he knew I had some differing opinions, but I couldn’t believe how similar his answers were to what mine might have been! In fact, there’s very few on this list I would disagree with (I’d put “Every Good Boy…” lower and definitely “December” a lot higher…). So, without further ado, here’s my father’s list of Best Moody Blues albums…including solo albums!
Moody Blues albums:
On the Threshold of A Dream
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
To Our Children’s Children’s Children
Long Distance Voyager
Strange Times
Question of Balance
The Present
In Search of the Lost Chord
Seventh Sojourn
Days of Future Passed
Octave
This is the Moody Blues (A really good Best-Of compilation, mixed like a real Moody Blues album. However, if a compilation album lands here, you can only imagine how…not great…the albums below it must be!)
Prelude (Another compilation, but this is of their early stuff before “Days of Future Passed”)
Caught Live +5 (I’ve always been a fan of the five unreleased songs at the end, myself)
Keys of the Kingdom
December
The Other Side of Life
Sur La Mer
Moody Blues Members’ Solo Albums:
The Promise – Mike Pinder
View From the Hill – Justin Hayward
Blue Jays – Justin Hayward and John Lodge
Among the Stars – Mike Pinder
From Mighty Oaks – Ray Thomas
Kick Off Your Muddy Boots – Graeme Edge
Natural Avenue – John Lodge
Songwriter – Justin Hayward
Hopes Wishes Dreams – Ray Thomas
Paradise Ballroom – Graeme Edge
Now that we’ve had our say, we’d love to hear what you think! What would you change about this list? Turn it upside down? A few tweaks? Let us hear from you in the comments section below!
Welcome, welcome to another version of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the best music video blog ever created: the Laptop Sessions!
My special guest is coming, I promise, but we’ll have to wait at least another week. But, it’ll be a great performance and I’m really looking forward to it.
So, I had to do an impromptu video tonight. I have been practicing this song for many months now, but I always had other Moody Blues songs cued-up so I never got to it. But, I had to do this video tonight up in my room because it’s just simply too cold in the studio now and I don’t wanna wait for the heat to kick in.
So, the video doesn’t look that great, but the sound is there, and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it? 🙂
Tonight, I bring you a great song by the Moody Blues from their album “The Present”. This might be considered the last great Moody Blues album, because they were still popular, relevant, and had all four members contributing in a significant way. I, of course, love the “Strange Times” album, but I definitely feel like I’m the only person in Connecticut (other than people I know personally) that knows of that album.
“Blue World” is a well-done song and has a classic Justin Hayward sound to it. I love the chorus and I even love that over-the-top Pat Moraz keyboard/synth work.
The only problem with this song is the introspective lyrics that Hayward is so accustomed to writing. He’s like the Mike Love of the band. I mean, in this song, Hayward mentions his songs “The Voice” and “Fly Me High”. He’s done this in other songs, as well. But the thing is that “The Voice” was from the PREVIOUS album! It’s not like he had a lot of time to reflect on the message of that song…
Well, I hope you enjoy tonight’s entry into the Laptop Sessions’ catalog. Chris and I are going to have a battle to the death to find out who’s stuck with Original Wednesday tomorrow, but I may guilt him into it, seeing that I’ll be away on business for the first time! I may be back in time and I’ll have stories to tell. I’ve never been to New York City alone before, so tomorrow should be interesting! Have a great one and I’ll be back sooner than you think!
Welcome to my 100th Laptop Session! I cant believe I’ve actually done 100 already, but the thing I’m happiest about is that the blog is finally starting to pull the visitors we’ve always thought we deserved from all this hard work over the past few months. So, I hope you’ll click on the “Share This” button under the title of all of our music video blog posts and share our videos on Facebook, MySpace, and Digg. We keep coming out with the content- free acoustic covers and original songs every day of the year- and now we need your help to make this spread. Because, I’ll admit- after doing 100 videos, it was almost a necessity to get more visitors to keep the spirits high here at the Laptop Sessions. And, I can honestly say, these spirits have never been higher. So, expect higher and higher video and sound quality every single day!
Tonight, I bring you a song I find fitting for my 100th Laptop Sessions song. Out of all the cover songs I’ve done, “A Simple Game” by the Moody Blues (and made a big hit by the Four Tops) stands as one of my original “favorite” songs. Back on the “Best Song EVER” show on WCJM free internet radio, I chose this as one of my top three favorite songs of all time, along with “The Little Girl I Once Knew” by the Beach Boys and “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. Of course, this show was recorded in 2000 when I was only 15 or 16 and my favorite songs list has changed a little bit. I’d have to say “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by the Byrds and “You Just May Be The One” by the Monkees are my top two right now. But, “A Simple Game” is still up there for me, especially because it WON the “Best Song EVER” contest on WCJM!
A few years later, we did another “Best of” show called the “Song for the New Millennium Show”, and another one of my picks won: “All The Things” by the Byrds, which Jeff stole as a Laptop Session from me a few days ago. But, he did the cover song justice (as he does with all of his acoustic cover songs), so you should really check it out here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog.
This song, “A Simple Game”, was never on a Moody Blues album- only a single. Mike Pinder wrote the song and the Four Tops took it and made it a huge hit, especially in England. But, I’ve always known the Moody Blues version, being such a big fan, so that’s the version I’ve stayed true to here.
I hope you enjoy my 100th Laptop Session- an expansive collection of acoustic cover songs and my own original music. Please stay tuned every single day here on the music video blog and we’ll continue to hit milestones, break records, and record great music!
