Cherry Beat - Recording Sessions (Part Nine - The Band's Eighth Album)

February 1978
The band's 1977 album "A Girl's Mind" had reached #1 in the United Kingdom, as of November 1977. While the album itself was an overwhelming success, the tension between the band members and their producers were increasing.

Peter McDonald was not impressed with Sam Whitby's decision to bring in Riley Ganz as a co-producer for their album "A Girl's Mind". He was also furious with Sam, and Devon O'Connell for letting Riley add percussion overdubs to the band's recordings without letting him, Torquil Dohrn, and Chudley Maron know.

Sam Whitby believed that bringing in Riley as a co-producer was for the best, and that another producer was necessary to freshen the band's recordings. It was his opinion that Chudley Maron needed a break from producing, and to focus more on his role as the band's music supervisor.

Peter fumed and said that he would rather record and produce his own tracks himself, than to have Riley, or his fellow band members screw up his material. And that's when the next course began. The individual band members of Cherry Beat would now have full control over how their songs would be recorded, who would produce them, and how they would be produced.

The recording sessions for the band's eighth album marked the first time, the band members weren't expected to record music solely as a complete band unit. The individual band members no longer felt that they were obliged to partake in all the recordings issued under their name.

Peter McDonald had in-fact recorded his own composition "Think" in 1975 without the involvement from the other band members. But that was only because Peter wanted to replicate the same approach that Paul McCartney had used to record his song "Yesterday" in 1965 while he was still a Beatle.

Although the band members of Cherry Beat weren't always recording together in the studio at the same time, most of the songs recorded for the band's eighth album would feature the participation of at least two members of the band.