The Meaning of “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues

It’s a love song about the end of one affair and the beginning of another. “Nights in White Satin” barely dented the U.S. charts when it was initially released. Five years later, it was rereleased and made a much more significant impact, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Moody Blues were transforming from an R&B band to a symphonic prog-rock outfit. Days of Future Passed marked a new direction for the band. “Nights in White Satin” was ahead of its time. In 1967, the pop world wasn’t ready for a song that included a poem and clocked in at more than seven and a half minutes. Let’s dig into the meaning of “Nights in White Satin.”

After their debut album, The Moody Blues shifted direction. Clint Warwick left the band and was replaced by Rod Clark. Shortly after, Clark and Denny Laine left the group. Manager Brian Epstein stopped representing them, and things didn’t look too promising for the remaining members. Guitarist/singer Justin Hayward and bassist/singer John Lodge stepped in. The next project would be a concept album. But it didn’t start that way because at the time, the band was in debt to their record label.

“They wanted us, as a way to pay off that debt, to do a demonstration record of a rock version of Dvorak with [conductor] Peter Knight playing the real Dvorak between our pieces and an engineer mixing them together so people would say, ‘Oh, that sounds wonderful in stereo,’” Hayward noted on the Moody Blues’ official site in 2012. “[Producer] Michael Barclay, whose project it was to get these demonstration records together, suggested we do it the other way around. We do our songs and then Peter Knight would orchestrate pieces in between our songs, and so that’s what we did.”

The birth of the song happened late at night after a gig. Hayward had been given some white satin sheets. He sat on the edge of his bed, strumming a 12-string guitar that belonged to skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan (more about that later). The plan for the album was to make it about a day and a night. “Dawn: Dawn is a Feeling” was already written by keyboardist Mike Pinder, and “Morning Glory” had been composed by drummer Graeme Edge. So Hayward concentrated on a song about the nighttime.

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

In 1967, Decca Records edited the song down to 3:06, and the song reached No. 103 in America upon its initial release. In 1972, radio stations started to embrace longer songs like “Hey Jude” and “American Pie.” The song was re-edited to 4:26 this time, and Decca rereleased it. “Nights in White Satin” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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

“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,” Hayward told Cleveland classic rock station WNCX.

The big-room sound in the studio recording is evident. The flute by Ray Thomas plays a prominent role as well. The whole sound of the band had evolved from the first album. Edge had composed the poem “Late Lament,” which was recited by keyboardist Mike Pinder. Edge also wrote the poem that appears during the morning section of the album.  

The London Festival Orchestra

Conductor Knight added orchestration to the recording after the band recorded the track. It was actually a collection of studio musicians playing strings. The album’s back cover gives equal credit to The Moody Blues with The London Festival Orchestra, but that was the credit given to anyone playing symphonic instruments on a Decca release going back to the early ’50s. The mellotron played by Pinder supplied the bulk of the string sounds. 

“Nights in White Satin” has been covered by many artists: Sandra, Elkie Brooks, Juliane Werding, Erwin Nyhoff, Eric Burdon, Percy Faith, Bettye LaVette, and punk band The Dickies have all recorded versions. In 1976, Giorgio Moroder recorded it as “Knights in White Satin.” In 2008, the song inspired an amusement park ride when the former Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, introduced the 3D/black light attraction, Nights in White Satin: The Trip.

Now, back to that Lonnie Donegan connection. Hayward had released some solo singles before he joined The Moody Blues. Donegan signed the 19-year-old singer/songwriter to his publishing company, Tyler Music. The deal would last eight years, ensuring the publishing money earned on The Moody Blues’ biggest hits would belong to Tyler Music. Hayward was repairing something on the skiffle singer’s 12-string guitar, which was why it was in his possession at the time “Nights in White Satin” was written. Years later, Hayward would purchase that very guitar from Donegan’s widow.

From a set of satin sheets to an orchestrated masterpiece, “Nights in White Satin” is a psychedelic piece of a larger puzzle. Hayward shared his feelings about the end of a love affair and the beginning of another. We are still feeling it all these years later. Days of Future Passed features ballads, recitations, and orchestral interludes. It’s hardly your standard pop music album. 

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night / Removes the colors from our sight / Red is grey and yellow-white / But we decide which is right / And which is an illusion.

Photo by Potter/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images