A live concert performance in 1970. Band member Justin Hayward wrote the song in 1967 at age nineteen, and titled it after a friend gave him a gift of satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many to term it as a tale of unrequited love endured by Hayward. The London Festival Orchestra provided the musical accompaniment heard throughout, and which reached its climax before and after the song itself and the spoken-word poem. The band and orchestra makes use of the Mellotron keyboard device, which would come to define the "Moody Blues sound". The band has had numerous hit albums in the UK, U.S., and worldwide, and has seen several additional musicians come and go. They remain active even as of 2007, with tour dates in the American Northeast announced.