Released 27 August 1971 Label Threshold | Recorded 4 November 1970 | |
B-side "My Song" (Holland)
"Melancholy Man" (US) Genre Progressive rock, blues rock, hard rock Length 2:57 (album)
3:07 (single) | ||
"The Story in Your Eyes" is a 1971 hit single by the English rock band The Moody Blues. Written by the band's guitarist Justin Hayward, it was first released as a single with "My Song" on the B-side, and then on the 1971 album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour shortly after.
Contents
On the album, "The Story in Your Eyes" is the second track, and is preceded by the track "Procession", the first and only song that was written by all five band members. The song was intended to describe the history of music from the beginning of time, and the only three words in the whole piece are "desolation", "creation", and "communication".
"The Story in Your Eyes" features a repeated electric guitar riff, a propulsive yet elegant bass line, and Justin Hayward on lead vocals, while incremental use of a Mellotron and a choral background generates an expansive, rhapsodic sound. "The Story in Your Eyes" was the Moody Blues' final single to feature only the Mellotron as it would be supplanted by the chamberlin, a similar instrument in time for their next album, Seventh Sojourn. The SACD release of the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour contains a version of "The Story in Your Eyes" that has the Mellotron in dominant role.
The distinctive picture sleeve used for the French single release used a photograph of a close-up face with the Threshold logo in place of the mouth.
Personnel
Cover versions
Stiv Bators released a single in 1987 on Bomp! of "Story in Your Eyes" backed with "Have Love, Will Travel". It is included on Bators' retrospective CD L.A. L.A..
Fountains of Wayne did a cover version of the song for their 2011 album Sky Full of Holes. It was available only as an Amazon.com MP3 bonus track.