The Magnificent Moodies

Background

The album did not make the Record Retailer/Music Week chart even though it reached number 5 in August 1965 in the New Musical Express album chart. The U.S. album did not make the Billboard chart.

The sleevenotes on the original UK release include an (undated) review by Virginia Ironside, music critic of The Daily Mail, which concludes, "With the Moody Blues, all you need to write is "MAGNIFICENT" in pink lipstick and leave it at that"; and a prose poem by Donovan recommending the band. All the tracks on the UK release were produced by Denny Cordell; except for "Go Now", which was produced by Alex Wharton.

Laine and Warwick left the group in 1966, and were replaced by guitarist Justin Hayward and bassist John Lodge respectively.

At the height of The Moody Blues' U.S. success in 1970, Deram Records reissued the U.S. version of the album with a new cover and title, In the Beginning (DES-18051). As with the original album, the reissue did not chart.

In the early 1980s, a double compilation album entitled A Dream, which included the entire The Magnificent Moodies LP along with the A and B sides of Moody Blues singles released between 1965 and 1967 (prior to the release of the Days of Future Passed album) was issued in much of western Europe, but only available on import in the UK.

In 1985 Intermediate Records reissued the album on vinyl and cassette as Go Now, with a mixture of songs from the original UK and US albums plus songs that would eventually be included as bonus tracks on the CD issues. Decca Records UK first issued The Magnificent Moodies on CD in 1988 with 13 bonus tracks, with mastering by Anthony Hawkins. Repertoire Records issued an abridged version of the CD in the 1990s with only seven bonus tracks. In 2006 the CD was reissued again, this time with 14 bonus tracks including the rare "People Gotta Go" not found on the 1988 Decca version. The CD also included, for the first time, a speed-corrected and undistorted version of "Go Now". The 2006 Repertoire CD was remastered by Eroc, who was the leader of the 1970s German rock band Grobschnitt.

Eroc described the project as follows:

When I got the job for the "Magnificent Moodies" from REP some time ago I also got the order to try to get the intro of "Go Now" better. So I sat down and analysed the distortion and then restored the waveforms very carefully. This can be done by "drawing" out each single harsh peak by hand. It took me some days but I wanted to find out, what can be done in general. The result is for the first time ever a much more natural sounding intro which also is pitched correctly.

I see this as an alternative for all those who always were bothered by that harsh "electric" piano-sound. I think many of them will like the new alternative and I myself prefer it a lot compared to the "technical distroyed [sic]" original. Others may hate it because it differs from the version they got used to over the decades. But in each case it's worth a qualified discussion.

British version

All lead vocals by Denny Laine except where noted

Personnel