I thought my memory might be a little fuzzy, but I was close. I combined two sessions, both in Japan and just days apart, into one recollection shared in my post in the wee small hours of this morning/last night. But I knew there was a story to it. Here it is in the words of Carol Sloane:
Dear D: “Sophisticated Lady” was not a “direct to disc”, but there is a nice bass/voice duet on it. It was the first recording my Japanese host/concert promoter arranged for me, so I sang the songs they specifically requested. You’re right: it does feature Roland, George and Richie. The date was October 16, 1977. The direct to disc was a few days later, just Roland and George and me, on October 23:
The memory of that date is still fresh in my brain: Mraz arrived quite exhausted after recording at a separate studio for about 10 hours; Roland had exquisite gout pain in his right foot, and I had a MAJOR head cold. No sneezing or blowing your nose between takes on a D-T-D … God, we were three miserable, tired, uncomfortable people. And we did experience one break-down … say about four tunes in … which necessitated going back to the top. I swore I’d never put myself through that sort of torture ever again. And I never did. I also never did quite agree with the technicians that D-T-D produced a finer-sounding recording.