Why Weren’t the Moody Blues in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

The band was inducted after waiting through nineteen years of eligibility (“Yippee!”)

This is a section of the Moody Blues’ album To Our Children’s Children’s Children. (Photo: personal collection)

IT FINALLY HAPPENED: On August 13, 2018, the Moody Bloody Blues were inducted into the bloody Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! A group long known for talent, innovation, success, millions of records sold, sold-out tours, and sheer longevity was finally recognized by the kind-hearted folk at the Hall.

As much as I would have liked to have been excited, I wasn’t as their induction came nineteen years after they were first eligible. This was far too long a wait for a group of their caliber and accomplishment.

And I’m saying this as a most modest fan, not as a diehard Moodys lover. Hell’s Belles, I probably only dig about a third of the tracks on each of their classic albums. But I long ago stopped confusing my response to, and opinion of, artists and their music with reality. There are always going to be “superstars” who millions idolize and whom I (or you) just don’t get.

Often, we don’t even want to get them!

When the Moody Blues released the gorgeous “Nights in White Satin” in 1967, it failed to even reach the Top 100 of the national surveys. But FM radio made it a staple in the early ’70s wand when it was reissued in 1972, it became their only US #1 hit when it topped the Cash Box Top 100 survey. (Photo: personal collection)