Track two, side A. That’s where this song sits on a Moody Blues tape I made in December 1984, right after the opener “Procession.” I labeled the cassette by hand and wrote the years on the J-card, which tells you how seriously I took it.
The album is Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, released in July 1971. It went to No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the U.S. The title is the old music class mnemonic for the lines of the treble clef, and you can hear those notes, E-G-B-D-F, on piano in “Procession.”
Justin Hayward wrote “The Story in Your Eyes” at home on his Martin D-28 acoustic, starting with the middle section and building the rest from there. He told Guitar Player in 2024 that he deliberately set out to write a harder rocking song than the band’s usual orchestral style. He first cut a rough demo with Mike Pinder, who layered on Mellotron, but in the final recording the Mellotron sits well back. It was the last Moody Blues single to feature one.
Tracking began in London in November 1970 with producer Tony Clarke. Hayward put down the acoustic guitar with drummer Graeme Edge, then double-tracked it. The electric parts came from a cherry red 1963 Gibson ES-335 he’d owned since 1968. He sent the opening riff straight into a Vox AC30 turned all the way up and ran the solo through a Marshall fuzz unit.
As for what it means, Hayward describes a love story and says some of it is private. He has also said it had something to do with the band.
The single charted in August 1971 and peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at No. 7 in Canada.
Flip the 45 over and the B-side depended on where you lived. U.S. and Canadian copies had “Melancholy Man,” from the previous album, A Question of Balance. Europe got “My Song,” which closes the album. Japan got “Emily’s Song.” All three are on my tape.
Punk singer Stiv Bators covered it as a single in 1987, and Fountains of Wayne recorded a version for their 2011 album Sky Full of Holes.
It’s just over three minutes, and it still rocks!
