"Moody's Mood for Love" is jazz saxophonist James Moody's instrumental solo on the song "I'm in the Mood for Love." Later, jazz singer Eddie Jefferson wrote lyrics to this improvisation by Moody. This particular arrangement of the song did not come to be known by its now common title of "Moody's Mood for Love" until King Pleasure released a very popular vocal version in 1952. King Pleasure's version included vocals by Blossom Dearie as well as instrumental contributions from Teacho and Band. Other artists who later released renditions of the song include George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones, Tito Puente, Amy Winehouse and Georgie Fame. The TONY award-winning musical Jersey Boys featured the song. The song also has been featured on an episode of The Cosby Show, as well as in an early 1990's blank">Gap television commercial.

In 2006, _American Idol contestant Elliott Yamin remade the song. His version appears on the album American Idol Season 5: Encores. This version just missed the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number one on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

The lyrics are often incorrectly attributed to King Pleasure because he was the first to record it. However, some sources report that when Pleasure was asked to write more lyrics to solos he confessed that he had not written this one. He had heard Jefferson perform it in a jazz club some years before and asked permission to reproduce it. James Moody later hired Jefferson to come on the road with him. Jefferson also appears on several recordings with Moody.

Another repercussion of Jefferson’s lyrical marriage to Moody’s solo was the impact it had on jazz singer Jon Hendricks. The story goes that Hendricks was sitting in a café when the King Pleasure recording of "Moody’s Mood" came on the jukebox. According to Hendricks, he had been writing “unpopular” songs for some time, but when he heard the recording and realized that it was a saxophone solo with words he decided to change his approach to songwriting. “I didn’t have to stop at 32 bars. Now I could write lyrics for all the parts in the orchestra.” He went on to collaborate with singer/arranger, Dave Lambert, and singer, Annie Ross, to form the group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. The group multi-tracked their voices and recorded the album Sing a Song of Basie in which they sang lyrics by Hendricks to the full arrangements of the Count Basie Orchestra (Ross singing all the trumpet parts, Hendricks singing the saxophone parts and Lambert singing the trombone parts). With the exception of a small rhythm section all 13 horn parts were reproduced by the three voices dubbed over.