The Moody Blues in their first iteration as a Beat band, with Denny Lane, didn't make much of an ipact in North America. One single made it to number 10 in the US charts. I do not recall ever hearing it in Canada. Nobody I knew had any of their records.
And for a while they floundered on the margins of the popular music charts.
Their line up changed in 1966.
Their slow fuse rocket ship, Days of Future Past, released in 1967, took off in the US almost five years later , perhaps the first (soft) Prog Rock album ever.
The first iteration
According to the Beatles (peripheral) documentary, Good Ol' Freda, The Moody Blues played in Liverpool. The Beatles almost fired Freda as their secretary because she spent too much time hanging around with The Moody Blues.
Good Ol' Freda!
Can you imagine the Beatles having "a secretary"? And of course they had a "road manager". Literally, their whole career together there were maybe 5 to 10 people at most managing their affairs, and maybe 2 or 3 people managing and setting up equipment for each show on their tours!
Today, a band with one hit would have hundreds of people working for them! At least!
walrus