I was hired to record an orchestra for a Pacific Bell commercial campaign. We booked one of my favorite studios, Westlake, Studio C in Hollywood. It was a beautiful room with a Neve Console and Studer tape machines but the thing I loved about it was the skylight over the console. Spending long days in a room with no windows is hard and the natural light made me feel better.
The music was written and produced by Rick Nowels. Rick had a propensity to find and work with interesting people. This time he hired arranger Paul Buckmaster (Elton John, Rolling Stones, David Bowie). We recorded the rhythm tracks, drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, and then the strings, maybe sixteen pieces, violins, violas, celli, woodwinds. The session stretched late into the night.
Paul asked me to give him a ride to his hotel, so we crawled into my fifteen-year-old MGB sports car and took off. Our conversation turned to a growing situation that needed to be handled with tact. As Paul was getting out of the car, he paused and said, “An old man in England once told me, ‘If you’re ever in a tit for tat with someone, make sure you do the moral and ethical thing, and you’ll always win.”’