Richard's Recording Sessions at Abbey Road/1984??

[Chris May]

Does anybody know WHY Richard chose to finish production on the left over Christmas stuff at Abbey Road in the early 80's?

It seems I had read about this somewhere, but I can't remember if this was just a fascination that he had to record there given Abbey's track record or what? Any ideas???? -Chris

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

I also have read about it. But it was a little bit different from yours.
Richard sent his notes to Peter Knight to be orchestrated. Richard and Peter recorded with 70-piece orchestra at EMI's Abbey Road. Richard bought the tapes back to A&M Studios and recorded choir.
But I might make a mistake in reading it.

"Christmas Portrait" interview
(Richard) wanted Peter Knight to orchestrate, and we couldn't have been more pleased, because we both feel that Peter was brilliant, and it really turned out to be something else! - Karen Carpenter

Sakura

 

[Chris May]

Thanks for that, Sakura. I do know that Peter Knight worked on most of the orchestrations for the “Christmas Portrait” sessions. But, to my knowledge, all of those tracks completed in ’78 were done at A&M. It wasn’t until R.C. went back to the unfinished tapes in ’84 for the completion of “An Old Fashioned Christmas” that he recorded the orchestrations at Abbey Road. I was just curious as to why he did it there.

I guess like you say, Richard was probably accommodating Peter Knight, having been London-based and all. Interesting stuff! -Chris