Customer Reviews

The Singles+

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of all the Moody Blues compilations (about 5-10), this has to be the best, both in price and content. It features every Moodies single plus a few B-sides and album tracks. As many have noted, there are three different Moody incartations on here, so I will review each as their own:
1)Tracks 1-10 are the earliest Moody Blues line-up (1964-1967) consisting of Denny Laine (vocals/guitar), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (flute/harmonica/vocals), Clint Warwick (bass), and Graeme Edge (drums). They are r&b influenced and Ray uses his harmonica a lot, plus all the songs are sung by Denny (although Ray and Mike sang some album tracks). Kind of average, but still enjoyable. Standouts are "Bye-Bye, Bird," "Steal Your Heart Away," "This is My House," and "Go Now."
2)Tracks 11-29 are from the classic period of 1967-1972 after Denny and Clint took off and Justin Hayward (guitar/vocals) and John Lodge (bass/vocals) took their places. They range from harder rock ("I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock 'n' Roll Band)") to ballads ("Nights in White Satin"). Rock classics all around. Standouts include the aforementioned two, "Tuesday Afternoon," "Ride My See-Saw," "Dear Diary," "Question," "The Story in Your Eyes," and "Isn't Life Strange." (Note tracks 30-32 are solo projects by Justin and John (only the first two). They are okay, but why are we given solo projects on a Moodies compilation?)
3) Tracks 33-43 are from a comeback from 1978-1988. Mike left after track 35 and was replaced by ex-Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz and I'm not sure if Ray was on the last track. Not as good as the last period, but still impressive. Standouts include "Steppin' in a Slide Zone," "Gemini Dream," "The Voice," "Sitting at the Wheel," "Your Wildest Dreams," and "The Other Side of Life."
Though not every track is a classic and it is missing a few really good ones ("Legend of a Mind," more than one from EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOR, "The Day We Meet Again), this is the biggest bang for your buck Moody Blues collection, well worth the five stars.

I love the Moody Blues and this album will not disappoint. The "Go Now" era tracks are a must-have. Unlike many other Moody Blues fans, I enjoy listening to these tracks as they show an evolution of the band. True, they sound like standard faire of Brit R & B influenced groups, but what a fantastic time period. Imagine the early Kinks and Pink Floyd stuff and you will get the idea. The rest is just incredible. The Question track is the same from my older Story of the Moody Blues LP, which I have not heard on CD before as they usually give the album version on collections. This particular single has a better sound/tempo. It was also great to hear Dear Diary, Watching and Waiting, and Eyes of a Child from the "classic Moodies" period, as well as Talking Out of Turn and Sitting At The Wheel from the "rebirth of the Moodies" period. If you own one Moody Blues collection, take a chance with this one as it is much more complete, much more affordable, much more sequential, and contains many more tracks with much more music than other Moody Blues collections.

Also, the 16 page color booklet is a useful and informative history of the band and the singles they created, complete with classic pictures of the band and pictures of the single sleeves.

Go Now and enjoy it!

I did a double-take when I first saw the price on this collection. Not only to you get every Moody Blues single from the Decca/London, Deram, Threshold and Polydor labels, you also get numerous b-sides and album tracks (43 in all!)!!! Another advantage to this collection is that it features six Denny Laine-era tracks (1-6), including their first U.S. and U.K. Top Ten hit "Go Now," not found on the box set. Also, tracks 7-10 feature the classic Moodies line up of Ray Thomas, Mike Pinder, Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward and John Lodge and are also not to be found on the box set. The only other track not duplicated on the box set is "Had To Fall In Love" from 1978's Octave. So do these eleven tracks make this a necessary purchase if you already own the box set? Probably not. But for everyone else, this is a must-own collection. This covers everything from their first U.S. hit in 1965 through their last ("I Know You're Out There Somewhere") from 1988 and all stops in between--"Tuesday Afternoon," "Question," "Nights In White Satin," "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock And Roll Band)," "Gemini Dream" and "Forever Autumn." [The latter is technically a Justin Hayward solo, but what a beautiful song!] My advice? Get this album while it's still available at such a bargain. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This compilation includes every A-side single that charted in each of seven different countries - America, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Sweden - except And my baby's gone (a top 20 French hit) but including Blue guitar and Forever autumn, two hits that Justin Hayward had without the Moody blues. Two other Justin Hayward hits, I dreamed last night (an American hit with John Lodge) and The eve of the war (a Dutch hit with Jeff Wayne), are omitted.

As well as all the hits, however minor, there are flop singles, B-sides and album tracks. So anybody who has looked through other Moody blues compilations, only to discover that one or more of their favorite minor hits is missing, look no further. You'll find it here.

The accompanying booklet includes chart details showing that they had a UK number one hit with Go now, a French number one with Melancholy man and a Dutch number one with Question. Nights in white satin, their most famous song, reached number two in France, Holland and America. I'm not sure what all this proves, except that the compilers have done their research.

Of course, all the classics are here, but this double-CD goes way beyond that. It starts with their first single, the flop Steal your heart away, and ends with I know you're out there somewhere from 1988. If you only buy one Moody blues collection, this is as good as any you are likely to find.

Track listing

1. Steal your heart away
2. Go now
3. I don't want to go on without you
4. From the bottom of my heart (I love you)
5. Everyday
6. Stop
7. Bye bye bird
8. Boulevard de la Madeleine
9. This is my house
10. Life's not life
11. Fly me high
12. Love and beauty
13. Nights in white satin
14. Cities
15. Tuesday afternoon
16. Voices in the sky
17. Ride my see saw
18. Lovely to see you
19. Dear diary
20. Never comes the day
21. Eyes of a child
22. Watching and waiting
23. Question
24. Candle of life
25. Melancholy man
26. Story in your eyes
27. Isn't life strange
28. I'm just a singer
29. For my lady
30. Remember me (my friend)
31. Blue guitar
32. Forever Autumn
33. Had to fall in love
34. Steppin' in a slide zone
35. Driftwood
36. Gemini dream
37. Voice
38. Talking out of turn
39. Sitting at the wheel
40. Blue world
41. Your wildest dreams
42. Other side of life
43. I know you're out there somewhere

The Moody Blues are one of the only prog-rock outfits who can pull off a career-spanning "hits" package with a straight face, as many of thier "concept" albums have not aged well (I dare you to listen to some of that bad beat poetry recited over droning sitars without snickering!). This double-disc "A's & B's" singles collection does a fine job at skimming the cream. Most of the track list already exists on similar compilations, but this is the first that digs a bit deeper into the "Go Now" era, when the band was more Britpop than Windowpane-influenced. All the usual suspects are here as well, from "Tuesday Afternoon" to "The Other Side Of Life", with some extra treats along the way like Justin Hayward's lovely "Forever Autumn" (best moment from Jeff Wayne's otherwise interminable "War Of The Worlds" rock opera) and the "Blue Jays" (side-project) singles. The enclosed booklet could have included more annotation (beyond just song titles and pictures of original 45 sleeves) but that's a minor quibble. If you've been puzzling over which of the myriad Moody anthologies to invest in, this one has the most bang for your buck.

I knew most of the Moody Blues' songs from a former roommate who was a big fan, but I didn't own any Moodies albums of my own, and wanted to get the most bang for my buck with my first purchase. So I went for this Dutch 2-CD set that covers everything from 1964's "Go Now!" to 1985's "I Know You're Out There Somewhere". The other Moodies best-of albums I've seen either ignored the years before Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined, or only included "Go Now!" In addition to having all the Hayward-Lodge classics, this compilation devotes almost half a CD to the Denny Laine era. Besides "Go Now!" (which was amazingly the Moodies' only U.K. #1 hit), there are great Laine/Pinder songs like "This Is My House (But Nobody Calls)", "Everyday", and "Life's Not Life". The set also includes highlights from the Moodies' 1973-78 hiatus: Hayward's gorgeous "Forever Autumn" from Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" album, and "Blue Guitar" and "Remember Me (My Friend)" from the Hayward-Lodge "Blue Jays" project. Some of the singles are shorter than the album versions; this is most noticeable on "Question". "Isn't Life Strange" is still a full six minutes long. The version of "Nights in White Satin" is different from the one I've always heard on American radio, which included the strings; I'm assuming this is the original U.K. single. I don't miss the lack of Graeme Edge's "Late Lament" poetry, but you might. Some B-sides are included, like "Candle of Life" and "Melancholy Man" (apparently the latter was released as a single in France and went to #1 there), but sadly not "A Simple Game". A few non-singles, like "Eyes of a Child" and "Lovely to See You", also sneak in. Overall, this is a fantastic package for the asking price. As an odd perk, the CD booklet includes a chart of how high each single peaked in the U.K., U.S., France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

This compilation includes every A-side single that charted in each of seven different countries - America, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Sweden - except And my baby's gone (a top 20 French hit) but including Blue guitar and Forever autumn, two hits that Justin Hayward had without the Moody blues. Two other Justin Hayward hits, I dreamed last night (an American hit with John Lodge) and The eve of the war (a Dutch hit with Jeff Wayne), are omitted.

As well as all the hits, however minor, there are flop singles, B-sides and album tracks. So anybody who has looked through other Moody blues compilations, only to discover that one or more of their favorite minor hits is missing, look no further. You'll find it here.

The accompanying booklet includes chart details showing that they had a UK number one hit with Go now, a French number one with Melancholy man and a Dutch number one with Question. Nights in white satin, their most famous song, reached number two in France, Holland and America. I'm not sure what all this proves, except that the compilers have done their research.

Of course, all the classics are here, but this double-CD goes way beyond that. It starts with their first single, the flop Steal your heart away, and ends with I know you're out there somewhere from 1988. If you only buy one Moody blues collection, this is as good as any you are likely to find.

This is the collection made for those fans that are `singles' oriented. Every Moody Blues single and B-Side from 1965 through 1988 is included here. The Moody Blues often included a choice album cut for their B-Sides rather than a mediocre album track. You can see from the list that the best is here. There is always going to be a missing song from `any' collection, but it also a showcase for the songs they thought would be best representative from that time period. Please note that they expected the lovely, "Watching and Waiting" to be a huge hit on par with , "Nights In White Satin" but it only charted modestly. This collection contains twenty-one Billboard charted hits as well as those that didn't quite make it. Even if you have the "Time Traveler" Box Set, this double disc in invaluable. Unfortunately, it is not Remastered - yet.

The booklet is a little better than most compilations, in that it includes singles charts from many European countries. This gives a better impression where this group has been popular and when. Of all the many compilations this group has put out, this is a great "complete" singles anthology.

I bought this compilation lured by the prospect of "clean" copies of the Moodies' singles. This would really have been valued by me. The Moodies' albums were innovative and ingenious at running songs together (song b starts while song a is still playing), thereby creating a continuous "mix" along the lines of modern House music---in fact, the MB's should be credited as one of the significant influences on House music. The down side of this is the impossibility of drawing clean singles from their LPs.

This album seemed to promise the solution to the problem. Regrettably, I was disappointed generally with this release's failure to deliver on its implicit promise to provide clean copies of singles along the lines of what several of the remastered CDs have provided:

For those looking for "clean" tracks, here is what you actually get (I ignore the first 12 tracks on CD1, which are pre-"Nights" and which did not feature the "run-togetherness" of their main LPs anyway.

In general, the problem is that, rather than use original tapes, the singles are taken off of the LPs, meaning that many of the the tracks are not clean. Perhaps this is the best possible because the original tapes are gone.

CD 1

"Nights in White Satin" Only the song itself is here, the preceding poem and the following "Late Lament" are omitted. The first beat of the song is omitted in order to eliminate the overlap with the poem. Thus, strictly speaking the full track is not here. The break at the end of the track is clean.

Track 14 "Cities" I would assume was written for but left off of Days of Future Passed. It is clean.

Track 15 "Tuesday Afternoon" is "clean" at both ends, though it is taken from Days of Future Passed, and so the end of the track, while the break is smooth, breaks off from the orchestral transition that was taking the LP listener over to Lodge's "[Evening] Time To Get Away."

Track 16, "Voices in the Sky," starts clean (as it should given it was the start of side two of the old LP for "In Search of the lost chord)." It is clean also on the way out.

Track 17, "Ride My See-Saw," is also clean at both ends.

Track 18, "Lovely To See You," is NOT clean coming in, the Track is taken straight off "On the Threshold of a Dream," meaning that its beginning is hopelessly mixed with Edge's "In The Beginning." The overlap is about a 1 1/2 seconds. Here is what I had hoped to avoid, I thought this CD would be composed of the original tracks before they were mixed into an album. Instead, they are the best cut possible from the album tracks.

Track 19: "Dear Diary," is clean at both ends. However, Thomas' charming ending thoughts: "Somebody exploded an H Bomb Today / Really wasn't anybody I know," had to be truncated to avoid the next track on "Threshold Of A Dream," and the second stanza quoted above is missing here.

Track 20: "Never Comes The Day," is clean at both ends, not a hard feat since it was the starting track of side 2 of the old LP.

Track 21, "Eyes of a Child," is one of the worst efforts. The sound, "Aaaauuuummmm!" from Pinder's "Om" off of "In Search of the Lost Chord," is inserted gratuitiously as the first thing heard on this track, presumably to cover up the sound of the end of the previous track on "To Our Children's Children's Children" This is rather egregious as two albums are being mixed together and the novice listener would have no idea that this is the case. At least the close of the track is clean.

Track 22: "Watching and Waiting," is clean at both ends.

Track 23: "Question" is clean at the front and through cutting a few seconds off the end of the song, is clean at the end. However, the version is not the original version of the Track (not the one on the original LP and, egregiously, not even the single release). Instead, it is the alternate version introduced in the mid-70s on the 2-disc set "This Is The Moody Blues." This very inferior rendition features only Hayward's guitar in the early going (in particular the omission of Pinder's synthesizer ba-BOOM! effect is missed) and adds much superfluous weird-witchy-sounding vocals to the chorus sections. Lodge on Steroids... A disaster... The original of Question is now available re-mastered on the original CD, though it is, of course, not a clean track. I do not think a clean track of Question in the original is available anywhere, a bizarre omission.

Track 24, "Candle of Life," is clean, since, mercilously, the intake to the song makes a natural start of a clean track. The ending is clean.

CD 2:

Track 1, "Melancholy Man." This track is NOT clean, its intake mixes with the prior track on "Question of Balance" (that prior track is "Dawning Is the Day," which ironically IS available as a clean track as a bonus track on the remastered CD). The bad effect on the intake of Melancholy Man is quite noticeable but not really bad, just irritating. By cutting a few seconds at the end of the track it is rendered clean at that end.

Track 2, "The Story In Your Eyes," is clean. That is nice, since the intake is thoroughly mixed with "Procession" on the "EGBDF" LP. However, don't credit these editors, the clean version has been available for years here and there on other compilations.

Track 3, "Isn't Life Strange," was essentially clean at both ends on "Seventh S" and is also clean here.

Track 4, "I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)," presents the version of the track first found on "This is the MB's", where the drums start the track at full throttle, rendering the intake clean and avoiding the steady drums fade-in that characterizes the LP. Great to have this, but, again, don't thank these editors for it, thank Tony Clarke.

Track 5, "For My Lady" Thomas' fine track is easily rendered clean at both ends by a little editing.

Track 6, "Remember Me, My Friend" Off the "Blue Jays" LP from '75. Rendered clean at both ends by a natural cut at the start and an easy fade at the end.

Tracks 7 and 8: Blue Guitar and Forever Autumn were single releases and are naturally clean.

Track 9: "Had To Fall In Love," was nearly clean on the intake on "Octave" and so is easily rendered clean here. Outtake was clean on "Octave" and so is here also.

Track 10: "Steppin' In A Slide Zone," is not clean on the intake, part of the opening portion of the track from "Octave" has been deleted to start the track quicker. Perhaps just the true single release. Anyway a bit irritating to someone who knows this song from "Octave."

Track 11-16: Driftwood; Gemini Dream; The Voice; Talking Out Of Turn; Sitting At The Wheel; Blue World; are all clean at both ends, as they all were essentially on their original LPs.

Track 17: "Your Wildest Dreams." Disgustingly not clean at the intake (start of track). Here is where the editors must be faulted. Surely the original tapes still exist (perhaps they have no legal right to them?). Instead of using them, they perform a rusty-knifed suture at the start of the track which is truly ugly. This track is essentially ruined here by this lame effort. If this is the single release then so be it, but whoever crafted it surely could have done a better job on the intake. The outtake is at least clean.

Tracks 18 and 19: "The Other Side of Life," and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," are clean at both ends.


A number of Moodies' album tracks are available as "clean" tracks now on the various remastered editions. Check Amazon listings for details. In general, if an "extra" track is supplied on a Moodies CD, then it is "clean". I only wish the people doing the fine remastered CDs would put their heads together and have a go at this mediocre singles outing.

It's a shame to hear the few folks that did whine about this collection. I have many SACD and MFSL copies of The Moody Blues CDs as well as several of their compilations. In that light, I still feel that this compilation is a very good value with songs that cannot be found on any other compilation. In addition, this collection has versions that are not readily available. The quality is very good, and the price would not be much of a risk for anyone!! So, for anyone who wants to enjoy the Moody Blues, give this a shot!!