hypersongs

The Alan Parsons Project

The studio duo of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, whose Eye in the Sky (1982) gave them a US number 3 with the title song.

Abbey Road canteen

Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson met in the Abbey Road Studios canteen in the summer of 1974. Parsons had been an assistant engineer on Beatles albums, engineered The Dark Side of the Moon and produced acts for EMI; Woolfson was a session pianist and songwriter developing Edgar Allan Poe-based material and proposed combining their talents. The Project formed in 1975 and released Tales of Mystery and Imagination, the Poe concept, in April 1976 (Charisma in the UK, 20th Century Fox Records in the US per Wikipedia). Arista released everything from I Robot (July 8, 1977, 9 in the US) onward: Pyramid (1978), Eve (1979), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1985) and Gaudi (1987), the last Project release.

Its sound was a studio construct in which Woolfson wrote with Parsons, Andrew Powell arranged orchestras and a rotating cast of lead singers took the songs: Arthur Brown in 1975, Jack Harris, Colin Blunstone from 1978, Lenny Zakatek, Chris Rainbow, Dave Terry as Elmer Gantry, John Miles and Gary Brooker. Ian Bairnson, who died in 2023, played guitars and David Paton bass and vocals. In 1979 they recorded the all-instrumental The Sicilian Defence in about three days during contract renegotiation with Arista, as leverage; Parsons says it was never meant for release, and it came out in 2014. Wikipedia says their popularity was strongest in North America, Latin America and continental Europe, and that they never reached the UK Top 40 with a single or Top 20 with an album.

Freudiana (1990), Woolfson's concept produced by Parsons with Project session players, is described as an unofficial Project album, and the only live outing under the name in the original run was Night of the Proms in Brussels in October 1990. Parsons began touring as The Alan Parsons Live Project from 1993. Woolfson died in 2009. The Alan Parsons Symphonic Project performed with the Medellin Philharmonic in 2013. A 2026 reissue programme covers Tales, Eye in the Sky, Ammonia Avenue and a super deluxe I Robot box.

Albums

Songs

  • Eye in the Sky Eye in the Sky · 1982

    Their biggest US single, 3 on the Hot 100 in 1982, sung by Woolfson.

Sources

  1. The Alan Parsons Project, Wikipedia
  2. The Alan Parsons Project discography, Wikipedia
  3. The Alan Parsons Project, The Alan Parsons Project
  4. Alan Parsons interview, 1986, Sound On Sound (1986-05)