First recorded by Vigrass & Osborne (JPN #2 1972).
Hit version by Justin Hayward (US #47/UK #5 1978).
From the wiki: “‘Forever Autumn’ was written by Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass. The original melody was composed by Wayne in 1969 as a jingle for a Lego commercial. Vigrass and Osborne, the performers of the original jingle, then, added lyrics and recorded the song for their 1972 album Queues. The recording was also released as a single and gained commercial success in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies and becoming a Top 5 hit.
“The best-known version, sung by Justin Hayward, is from the album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (1978). Wayne wanted to include a love song on the album that sounded like ‘Forever Autumn’. He decided that the best course of action was to simply use his original song.
“Hayward, of The Moody Blues, was hand-picked by Wayne to sing it (because, Wayne said, he ‘wanted that voice from ‘Nights In White Satin”). The Hayward version was recorded at London’s Advision Studios in 1976. The recording reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1978. ‘Forever Autumn’ would later be included in the Moody Blues’ box set Time Traveller.”
Justin Hayward, “Forever Autumn” (1978):