The Magnificent Moodies is the only album by the original line-up of Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Clint Warwick (bass/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (flute/harmonica/percussion/vocals) and Graeme Edge (drums).

The album is a mix of rhythm and blues covers, including "Go Now" which had been a Number 1 hit single for the band earlier that year, and original songs by Laine and Pinder which show more of a Merseybeat influence.

For the American and Canadian release on London Records, with the title Go Now: The Moody Blues #1, four songs were replaced with those two preceding singles and two B-sides, with a different running order of the tracks.

[2] The sleeve notes on the back cover of the original UK release include an (undated) review by Virginia Ironside, music critic of Daily Mail, which concludes, "With the Moody Blues, all you need to write is "MAGNIFICENT" in pink lipstick and leave it at that".

The band held a launch party for the album, with guests including George Harrison and Paul McCartney of the Beatles and Marianne Faithfull.

[6] After the album's release, the band issued two further non-album singles, "Everyday" in October 1965 and "Boulevard de la Madeleine" in June 1966 (in the US, the B-side of the latter, "This is My House (But Nobody Calls)", was the A-side).

At the height of The Moody Blues' U.S. success in 1970, Deram Records reissued the US version of the album with a new cover and title, In the Beginning (DES-18051).