ON THIS DAY IN 1985 - RUSH RECORDED A 25-VOICE CHOIR AND A 30-PIECE ORCHESTRA FOR A POWER-TRIO ALBUM

In 1985, Rush—the famously self-contained power trio—found themselves recording with a 30-piece orchestra and a 25-voice choir. 🎸🎻

The expansion came during the making of Power Windows, the band’s 11th studio album and its first with producer Peter Collins. Collins encouraged Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart to pursue sounds beyond their usual three-man framework, including string arrangements by Anne Dudley.

By August, the sessions had reached Abbey Road Studios in London. There, a 30-piece string section assembled to perform Rush music for “Manhattan Project” and “Marathon.” For three musicians accustomed to creating such enormous sounds themselves, simply watching an orchestra play their material was a surreal experience. 🎼

Geddy later described the sight as bizarre and hilarious: rows of musicians wearing headphones and playing along with the band’s powerful tracks. Yet beneath the amusement was genuine excitement at hearing those songs transformed by live strings.

Then came another unexpected step. At Angel Studios, Rush recorded a 25-voice choir, arranged and conducted by Andrew Jackman, for the ending of “Marathon.” 🎤

The choir itself made the moment even more memorable. Geddy recalled looking around and seeing pregnant women and middle-aged men singing a Rush song—an image he said he would never forget. The voices appear only near the track’s conclusion, but their arrival gives “Marathon” its soaring final lift. ⚡

Power Windows still sounded unmistakably like Rush: intricate, forceful and driven by three musicians. But the orchestra and choir showed what could happen when a power trio stopped treating its size as a boundary and started treating the studio as an open window. 🪟✨

#musicOnOff #Rush #PowerWindows #GeddyLee #AlexLifeson #NeilPeart #ProgRock