to sign her for Evita. Covington was extremely intrigued by their proposal, considering Eva Perón to be a non-commercial idea for a musical. Nevertheless, she thought that the songs were great compositions and signed on for recording them. Lloyd Webber and Rice immediately started recording, and the first demos were those of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", "I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You" and "Buenos Aires", with just piano as an accompaniment. They moved on to sign a deal with MCA Records, to release an album based on the songs, however with extremely poor royalty rates since the record company executives did not expect the album to be a success. In the meantime, singers for all the other roles of the musical were also signed, and the cast moved to Olympic Studios in 1975 to start recording. Recording and composition Personnel working on the Evita album included recording engineer David Hamilton-Smith, Simon Philips on drums, Mo Foster on bass, Joe Moretti and Ray Russell on guitars and Anne Odell on keyboards. David Snell played the harp while Anthony Bowles conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, while another choir called the London Boy Singles was directed by Alan Doggett. Members of The Grease Band, including bassist Alan Spenner and rhythm guitarist Neil Hubbard, also played on the album. It took a total of 3–4 months to finish the recording. The intensity which Rice looked for in the track was not immediately achieved during recording, because it is a sentimental ballad and because of its lyrics. As the delivery date of the recording approached, they got more tense since most of the album was put together. Only this song was left as they could not decide on the final title, and Rice tried out names which did not make sense within the political and dramatic atmosphere of the story. They had initially tried out various lyrics as the main hook and title of the song including "It's Only Your Lover Returning" and "All Through My Crazy and Wild Days" amid fears that mentioning Argentina would reduce the commercial appeal. Rice recalled, "What a crass decision! It was probably the only time (honest) that I had made the mistake of caring more about a lyric's potential outside the show than its importance within it, and as a result both song and show suffered." Covington had already recorded the phrase "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"