This Is The Moody Blues
This Is The Moody Blues is a two LP (later two CDs) compilation album by the Moody Blues, released in late 1974 while the band was on a self-imposed sabbatical. Though all of the songs were previously released on albums (with the exception of "A Simple Game" which was a 1968 B-side), several of them are heard here in distinctly different mixes. Like the Moody Blues albums of the time — but unlike most compilation albums, including later Moody Blues compilations — the songs on this album segue seamlessly, without silence between tracks.  On the original LP, this was true of the songs on each side; when the album was remastered for CD, each disc was also blended, so that "Legend of a Mind" segues into "In The Beginning", and "Watching and Waiting" segues into "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)".

The album is particularly notable for being the first release to provide a separate name for "Late Lament", the symphonic coda and spoken poem that closes "Nights in White Satin".

This Is the Moody Blues was a commercial and critical success, reaching #14 in the United Kingdom and #11 in the United States before 1974 was out.

Original track listing

Side One
 "Question" (Justin Hayward) (from A Question of Balance, 1970)  – 5:39
 "The Actor" (Hayward) (from In Search of the Lost Chord, 1968) – 4:11
 "The Word" (Graeme Edge) (spoken poem from In Search of the Lost Chord, remixed over instrumental "Beyond" from To Our Children's Children's Children, 1969) – 0:51
 "Eyes of a Child" (John Lodge) (from To Our Children's Children's Children) – 2:34
 "Dear Diary" (Ray Thomas) (from On the Threshold of a Dream, 1969) – 3:56
 "Legend of a Mind" (Thomas) (from In Search of the Lost Chord) – 6:37

Side Two
 "In the Beginning" (Edge) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 2:06
 "Lovely to See You" (Hayward) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 2:35
 "Never Comes the Day" (Hayward) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 4:39
 "Isn't Life Strange" (Edited version) (Lodge) (from Seventh Sojourn, 1972) – 5:32
 "The Dream" (Edge) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 0:52
 "Have You Heard? (Part 1)" (Mike Pinder) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 1:23
 "The Voyage" (Pinder) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 4:08
 "Have You Heard? (Part 2)" (Pinder) (from On the Threshold of a Dream) – 2:08

Side Three
 "Ride My See-Saw" (Lodge) (from In Search of the Lost Chord) – 3:32
 "Tuesday Afternoon" (Hayward) (from Days of Future Passed, 1967) – 4:04
 "And the Tide Rushes In" (Thomas) (from A Question of Balance) – 2:54
 "New Horizons" (Hayward) (from Seventh Sojourn) – 5:06
 "A Simple Game" (Pinder) (B-side to UK "Ride My See-Saw" single, 1968) – 3:18
 "Watching and Waiting" (Hayward, Thomas) (from To Our Children's Children's Children) – 4:21

Side Four
 "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)" (Lodge) (from Seventh Sojourn) – 4:11
 "For My Lady" (Thomas) (from Seventh Sojourn)  – 3:54
 "The Story in Your Eyes" (Hayward) (from Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, 1971) – 2:45
 "Melancholy Man" (Pinder) (from A Question of Balance) – 5:05
 "Nights in White Satin" (Hayward) (from Days of Future Passed) – 4:33
 "Late Lament" (Edge, Peter Knight) (from Days of Future Passed) – 2:33

Chart positions

Album