 Gathering support from Widmer and Cordon Bleu, Barry Kimberly of publishers Essex Music and the EMI label, Rawlins and Widmer managed to stitch together a deal to record the album.Overseen by David Woodley-Page, "The Happy Prince" was recorded over four weeks in early 1969.The process of "bouncing down" — dubbing a completed 4-track recording onto one track of another tape was susceptible to the buildup of noise on the master tape.