and auditioned as guitarist for Marty Wilde and he went on to work with Wilde and his wife in The Wilde Three. The Moody Blues In 1966, after answering another ad in Melody Maker, this time placed by Eric Burdon of The Animals, Hayward was contacted by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues after Burdon had passed on Hayward's letter and demo discs to Pinder. Within a few days, Hayward had replaced departing Moody Blues vocalist and guitarist Denny Laine. Bassist John Lodge replaced Rod Clarke, who had stood in for departed bassist Clint Warwick at the same time. After beginning by singing the old blues-inspired repertoire of the Moody Blues' 1964–1965 era, Hayward's initial artistic contribution to the Moody Blues was his song "Fly Me High", which was a Decca single early in 1967. It failed to chart, but gave the revised band a new direction forward from the R&B sound they had been largely producing up to that point. Hayward's driving rocker "Leave This Man Alone" was then used as the B-side of their next single on Decca, backing Pinder's "Love And Beauty" (1967), the first Moody Blues record to feature the Mellotron. Hayward and Lodge's integration into the Moody Blues along with Pinder's use of the Mellotron sparked greater commercial success and recognition for the band, transforming them into one of pop music's biggest-selling acts. The 1967 album Days of Future Passed, one of the first and most influential symphonic rock albums, gave rise to the Hayward-penned singles "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin". The latter record went on to sell over two million copies, charting three times in the UK (1967, 1972 and 1979), and has been recorded by many other recording artists. Hayward's B-side song "Cities" was an early ecology-themed item. In addition to delivering the lead vocals on his own compositions, Hayward took a featured lead or co-lead vocal on other band members' songs, including "Dawn is a Feeling" (Pinder), "Gimmie A Little Somethin'", "Isn't Life Strange", "Candle of Life" (Lodge), "After You Came", "I'll Be Level With You", "The Spirit" and "Nothing Changes" (Edge). The Moody Blues' attempts to come up with another hit single during 1967–68 had them record three other Hayward compositions; "Long Summer Days", "King and Queen" and "What Am I Doing Here?", all of which were then left unissued, but together with unissued songs by Pinder and Lodge