Songoftheday 03/16/13 - What's the use in looking for an answer, I might find out it could be a disaster...

The Moody Blues - "Sitting At The Wheel"
from the album The Present (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by the veteran British progressive/orchestral rock group the Moody Blues, who trace their roots back to the mid-60s in Birmingham, where the first incarnation of the group, including keyboardist Michael Pinder and singer/guitarist Denny Laine, released their first album, The Magnificent Moodies, and topped the British singles chart and reached the American Top-10 with their cover of an obscure soul song "Go Now". After a couple years of failing to follow that up, Laine quit (later to arrive with Paul McCartney's Wings), to be replaced by an old bandmate of Pinder's, John Lodge, and singer/songwriter Justin Hayward. The two would become essential in transforming the sound the Moodies and change the way rock music was seen by classical fans.

In 1967, after an aborted attempt to recreate a rock version of a classical piece by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, they recorded their own original hybrid of classic and new with their iconic album Days Of Future Passed. With orchestral interludes and picturesque soundscapes, the album was moderately successful at the start, but it took until 1972 for the world (and especially America) to go apeshit over this (including my parents, who had it on 8-track). The signature song from the set, "Nights In White Satin", went to become their second top-10 single in the States.

The Moody Blues proceeded to put out more experimental progressive albums in the late 60s-early 70s, and came close to topping the charts in their homeland again in 1970 with "Question". But by the mid-70's, the band took a break for a few years, splitting off to do solo and collaborative projects. The group got back together in 1977, but after conflicts with touring and other matters, original member Pinder found himself squeezed out of his band and replaced by Yes key-man Patrick Moraz, who changed the tone of the group's sound from orchestral to more of an electronic synthesized rock.

In 1981, the new (third) version of the Blues released Long Distance Voyager, which would be a "comeback" album of sorts, returning them to pop radio in America with two top-20 hits, "Gemini Dream" and "The Voice" (The latter becoming their first #1 on the nascent US rock chart). It became their second #1 LP (and first in nine years), and revitalized interest in the group as a mellow-ELO-ish post-disco rock group.

Two years later, The Blues released The Present, their eleventh studio set, and the first single in America became another top-40 hit. Even though at this point Hayward had shifted to be the apparent frontman for the group, "Sitting At The Wheel" was written and sung by Lodge...

While "Sitting At The Wheel" was only a moderate hit on pop radio, it continued their winning streak on rock stations, peaking at #3 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the fall of 1983. While also making the top-40 in Canada, it flopped in the UK, where a Justin-led song ("Blue World") took its place. The band would return in a couple years with an even bigger album with The Other Side Of Life and a top-10 pop hit with "Your Wildest Dreams".

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


,,,and here's the band performing the song at Wembley on tour in 1984...

Up tomorrow: Instantly, a new solstice. But not Spring.