Christopher's Cool Alan Parsons Page!

PAGE INITIATED: JANUARY 17, 1999.

LAST UPDATED: FEBRUARY 9, 2003!

This page is devoted to one of my all-time favorite artists, Alan Parsons.

How do you define a recording legend? There are many criteria you could choose. Certainly, though, for a producer or engineer, the success of the bands you work for and the high quality of your own talents at the mixing board are two that apply. Given those criteria, one of the legends of the recording industry's past 35 years has to be Alan Parsons.

This page will cover Alan's journey from assistant engineer to primary engineer, producer and engineer, and eventually to becoming a successful artist in his own right, and you'll find links to learn more about the people who were members of the Project as well as MIDIs and RealAudio so you can experience their magic first hand.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALAN PARSONS (pre-1974)

Alan Parsons started out, surprisingly, as a performer! This Brit was an instrumental prodigy, quickly mastering flute, piano, pipe organ, and guitar, among other instruments. These skills would be handy later on... He was also tinkering with home radio kits and other electronic projects.

As 1967 rolls around, we find Alan working for EMI's Hays, Middlesex plant, first in a research lab working on TV cameras, and later at the tape production plant where mono 1/4"" master tapes for albums were made. In England (and the rest of the world), The Beatles are still the best band around, even though Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass have consistently knocked them out of the Top 5 album chart on the 'left' side of the pond (aka Atlantic Ocean).

The 1967 release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band would turn the whole music industry on its virtual 'ears'. Despite often being under the influence of hard drugs, their creativeness was not diminished. Their suggestions of odd sounds to use amazed producer George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and Ben Johns, who scrounged EMI's Abbey Road studios and Parlophone Records vaults to find examples that could be manipulated to make those odd sounds. All this happened in an era where the tape loops had to be spliced by hand and looped around door knobs and microphone stands et.al., too; a far cry from today's advanced digital sampling and multi-track recording equipment!

The sounds that emerged from Abbey Road on that album moved Alan Parsons to decide he wanted to help create sounds like that, too.

In a 1979 interview, Alan said, "This is really where I got interested in hi-fi, because this was the first time I had heard high quality sound systems, and one of the albums that I heard during my time there was Sergeant Pepper, and having always been a great fan of the Beatles, I was totally knocked out by this album, and I was determined to find out how they got these sounds, and just how the whole thing went about, but the problem was that I'd heard that to get a job in the studios at Abbey Road was very competitive, and I'd have a very hard time. But, surprisingly enough, I just wrote a letter to the manager, and within 10 days I was working there."

His first two assignments in this new EMI job couldn't have been posher assignments: working along side Ben Johns and Geoff Emerick (respectively) on The Beatles' final two albums, Let It Be and Abbey Road. Watch The Beatles Anthology TV special from those sessions, and you'll see a young Alan Parsons in action, working the tape recorder. Alan was one of the few people who was a close-up witness to the final live performance of The Beatles, atop the Apple Records building on London's Savil Row.

The breakup of The Beatles didn't end young Alan's career, though. Alan became good friends with both Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Alan's first uncredited engineering work can be heard on the self-titled first McCartney solo album and Ram and Wildlife for Paul's new band, Wings. He did rough cuts of tracks as a guide for the final work. His rough cuts of "Maybe I'm Amazed" (McCartney) and "I'm A Singer" (Wildlife) were the ones ultimately chosen for release. Having made such a good impression upon Paul, Paul asked him to co-produce a few tracks for Red Rose Speedway, as well. Alan also worked on some songs on George's early '70s solo albums.

Alan would also assist in recording many other artists, including Procol Harum ("A Whiter Shade Of Pale"), The Hollies ("The Air That I Breathe", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" among them; produced by Ron Richards, and often featuring a then-unknown Elton John on piano), and The Zombies ("She's Not There", "Tell Her No", "Time Of The Season").

Alan's first solo break came in 1973, when he got his chance to be the primary engineer for the band Pink Floyd, who up to this point had been well known only in Europe. (Alan did the mixdown engineering on their 1972 album Atom Heart Mother.) The result was named Dark Side Of The Moon, and contrary to many rumors, was not designed as an alternate sound track for the film, The Wizard of Oz.

"Money" became a big worldwide hit, Alan was nominated for a Grammy award, and the styles Alan created would help his first primary engineering gig become the biggest selling album of all time, as well as influence his own musical future! Meanwhile...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ERIC WOOLFSON (pre-1974)

Like Alan, Glasgow native Eric Woolfson was also a child prodigy, with piano and electric organ being this Scotsman's instruments of choice. He also possesed extraordinary singing and songwriting skills, which caught the attention of British song publishers. He wrote many songs for artists and bands of the so-called 'British Invasion' of the US charts in the 1960s, including Herman's Hermits and The Rolling Stones. His vocal talents began to be noticed as well, when he joined Herman's Hermits as a backing vocalist. (Listen carefully and you'll hear Eric backing up Peter Noone's lead vocals on "Something Good" and "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter", among other Herman's Hermits songs.)

Eric turned to artist management in the early 1970s, and his first two would prove to be successful:
Carl Douglas (who had a #1 hit in 1973 with "Kung Fu Fighting") and Alan Parsons!

HOW THE PROJECT WAS FORMED AND THEIR FIRST SUCCESS (1974-1977)

Alan's success with Pink Floyd made him the in-demand engineer. Pink Floyd offered Alan a permanent gig as their sound designer, but he turned it down.

Alan ended up going into production, as well as engineering. The first one was for Steve Harley's band Cockney Rebel, where he met prog-rock orchestrator and sometime keyboardist Andrew Powell. The pairing of these two APs continued until the disbanding of the "Alan Parsons band" in 2001. Cockney Rebel's drummer, Stuart Elliott, and Steve's singing brother, Chris (better known to Projectologists as Chris Rainbow) would both join up with the Alan Parsons Project in 1979.

The second act EMI sent to him for production was Pilot (see the details below). Also, he was asked to produce Al Stewart's albums Modern Times, Year Of The Cat and Time Passages. All the Al Stewart albums Alan did were multi-million sellers, featuring two title tracks and a third song ("Song On The Radio") whose styles would also play a part in Alan's future efforts.

Alan produced and engineered the From The Album Of The Same Name and Second Flight albums for Pilot, a British act featuring David Paton (Pay-ton) on bass and lead vocals, Billy Lyall on keyboards, Ian Bairnson on guitar, and Stuart Tosh on drums, with Andrew Powell orchestrating. The song "Magic" would be Pilot's only major US hit (#2 on the Hot 100 Singles chart), and caught the attention of Eric Woolfson, who was also working for EMI Abbey Road by that time.

Eric convinced Alan that the two of them could create a band that didn't tour (like the post-1966 Beatles), have "interchangeable" members, and concentrate only on "theatric" studio pieces. Thus was The Alan Parsons Project conceived. As Alan would later relate in the liner notes for his 1987 remix/remaster of the Project's debut album, the moniker 'The Alan Parsons Project' was established only to describe that first album, and not as the name of a continuing band that would go on for a decade and a half and record some of the best pop and rock tunes ever.

It would take the Project two years to complete and release their first album because of Alan's latest gig. Alan had been hired by 20th Century (Fox) Records in Los Angeles to engineer and co-produce the mixdown for the 1975 self-titled debut album of the prog-rock band Ambrosia.

Freddie Piro, Ambrosia's manager and producer, summed up their luck in landing Alan in the liner notes for Ambrosia:

"The climax of this album was to come about after the last overdub was laid down and it was ready to be mixed. We were lucky to have sought and found Alan Parsons, a young and highly gifted English engineer, who had never mixed anything outside of Abbey Road Studios in London. Alan heard the unfinished tapes and became quite excited. He then flew to America to begin mixing down our months of work. As each song unfolded under Alan's meticulous mixing technique, we began realizing that our efforts for that year were all well worth the incredible feeling we were now experiencing."

Ambrosia would be nominated for a Grammy award for Best Engineered Recording in 1976. That feeling they were experiencing was so incredible, they also hired Alan to engineer and produce their 1976 follow-up album, Somewhere I've Never Travelled, with Piro serving as executive producer. Ambrosia's members would, in turn, play on two tracks for the Project's debut album. Alan wouldn't work with Ambrosia as a band again until 1996, when he was given the chance to do the mixdown on two of three new tracks Ambrosia recorded for a very successful (and first ever) greatest hits compilation for WB, 1997's Anthology.

With Pilot being transformed into the core band members, and both Alan and Eric adding their performing talents, the original Project lineup was set. The first Project track was recorded at Mama Jo's in North Hollywood in May, 1975, with nearly everything else being recorded at Abbey Road. Gordon Parry, the legendary Austrian classical recording engineer, who had recorded some of the odd sounds heard on Ambrosia, was brought in by Alan to record the orchestral parts for the Project's debut album.

Alan and Eric decided each album would have a theme. Eric came up with American poet Edgar Allan Poe, figuring the American link (and, coincidentally, both Alan's and Andrew's initials) would help it sell. It didn't help. 20th Century Records released Tales Of Mystery And Imagination -- Edgar Allan Poe in 1976, and it didn't sell very well. It did yield two minor radio hits, however, and the quality of the music and concept would attract at least one important fan to their work... Enter Clive Davis!

Clive Davis departed the presidency of CBS Records in 1974 to run Bell Records, the record division of Columbia Pictures, where he would have complete control. His first three years saw him change the Bell name to Arista, and continue his amazing ability to craft hitmaking artists, turning Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester into international superstars. He was ready to do the same for Alan Parsons' little Project. Even though he couldn't pick the songs for the Project to record (since Alan and Eric wrote their own), he knew that the Project's 'concept' albums could be marketed well, and bring in the listeners and buyers. He was right.

I, Robot was released by Arista in 1977. The album's theme of the rise of machine and the decline of man hit home with many people, and "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You" made the Top 30 singles chart. The title track, an instrumental work (the MIDI of which is featured here), 'borrowed' a catchy keyboard riff from Steely Dan's 1976 hit, "Kid Charlemagne".

...and the rest is Rock 'N' Roll history!

DISCOGRAPHY (US) AND ALBUM THEMES

All Project albums Produced and Engineered by Alan Parsons; Executive Producer Eric Woolfson (except where noted).

Core Project members 1976-1990:

Alan Parsons - cathedral organ, keyboards, "Projectron", guitar, flute, backing vocals
Eric Woolfson - piano, keyboards
Ian Bairnson - guitar
Billy Lyall - keyboards (1976)
Duncan MacKay - guitar (1977-1979)
Stuart Tosh - drums and percussion (1976-1978)
Stuart Elliott - drums and percussion (1979-1990)
David Paton - bass (1976-1986)
Laurie (Laurence) Cottle - bass (1987-1990)
Mel Collins - sax (1979-1984)
Richard 'Trix' Cottle - saxophone, keyboards (1985-1990)
Andrew Powell - orchestration and conducting

1976 Tales Of Mystery And Imagination -- Edgar Allan Poe

1977 I, Robot Originally issued as Arista AL 7002.

Theme: The decline of man and the rise of the machine.
Liner: "I Robot... The story of the rise of the machine and the decline of man, which paradoxically coincided with his discovery of the wheel... and a warning that his brief dominance of this planet will probably end, because man tried to create robot in his own image."

Featured lead vocalists: Lenny Zakatek, Jaki Whitren & Peter Straker, Dave Townsend, Allan Clarke, Steve Harley, Jack Harris.

Notes: Alan was working on this as well as the fourth (and prior to 2002, final) Pilot studio album with David and Ian, Two's A Crowd, also released by Arista that year. New versions of some of those final Pilot songs are available on the latest Pilot album, Blue Yonder.

1978 Pyramid Originally issued as Arista AB 4180.

Theme: The fascination of man with the pyramid, going back to the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Featured lead vocalists: David Paton, Colin Blunstone, Lenny Zakatek, Dean Ford, Jack Harris, John Miles.

1979 Eve Originally issued as Arista AL 9504.

Theme: What else? WOMEN!

This album features the first (and only) female lead vocalists for the Project proper, Leslie Duncan and Clare Torry
(who were also the two female vocalists you hear on Dark Side Of The Moon).

Featured lead vocalists: David Paton, Dave Townsend, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, Clare Torry, Lesley Duncan.

1980 The Turn Of A Friendly Card Originally issued as Arista AL 9518.

Theme: Gambling, games people play, and their effects on society.

Featured lead vocalists: Elmer Gantry, Lenny Zakatek, Eric Woolfson, Chris Rainbow.

1982 Eye In The Sky Originally issued as Arista AL 9599.

Theme: The ever watchful Eyes, of God and of video and satellite surveillance.

Featured lead vocalists: Eric Woolfson, David Paton, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, Elmer Gantry, Colin Blunstone.

A multi-track analog recording digitally mixed direct to the digital master tape.

1983 The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project Originally issued as Arista AL8-8193.

Theme: N/A.

Featured lead vocalists: Lenny Zakatek, Eric Woolfson, Jack Harris, Elmer Gantry, Dave Townsend, Dean Ford, Colin Blunstone.

11 tracks from 1977-1982, plus "You Don't Believe", a new song also to be included on...

1984 Ammonia Avenue Originally issued as Arista AL8-8204.

Theme: The effect of big corporations and industry on society.

A multi-track analog recording digitally mixed direct to the digital master tape.

Featured lead vocalists: Eric Woolfson, Lenny Zakatek, Chris Rainbow, Colin Blunstone.

1985 Vulture Culture Originally issued as Arista AL8-8263.

Theme: Modern society's self-destructive nature.

Featured lead vocalists: David Paton, Eric Woolfson, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, Colin Blunstone.

A multi-track analog recording digitally mixed direct to the digital master tape.

1986 Stereotomy Originally issued as Arista AL9-8384. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: The new frontier - digital rock and roll, and its homage to the past. Stereotomy, in case you're wondering, is a gemologist's term for "the technique of cutting solids, as stones, to specified forms and dimensions," and is a term that appears in Poe's story "The Murders In The Rue Morgue". Alan thought it would make a good title for a stereo rock album.

Featured lead vocalists: John Miles, Chris Rainbow, Gary Brooker, Graham Dye, Eric Woolfson.

1987 Gaudi Originally issued as Arista AL-8448. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: The life and works of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi.

Featured lead vocalists: John Miles, Lenny Zakatek, Eric Woolfson, Geoff Barradale w/Chris Rainbow.

1987 The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project VOLUME 2 Originally issued as Arista AL-8486.
Theme: N/A.

Featured lead vocalists: Eric Woolfson, David Paton, Geoff Barradale, John Miles, Chris Rainbow.

11 tracks from 1977-1987.

1988 The Instrumental Works Originally issued as Arista AL-8487.
Theme: N/A.

10 instrumentals from 1977-1987.

1990 Freudiana Parlophone Odeon/EMI CDP 79 5415 2. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING
(An 18 song double-LP/single CD/tape released only in the EU.)

Theme: The life and works of Sigmund Freud, started as a traditional Project album, transformed into a musical.

Featured lead vocalists: Eric Woolfson, Leo Sayer, Graham Dye, The Flying Pickets, Kiki Dee, Eric Stewart, Frankie Howerd, Marti Webb, Gary Howard, Chris Rainbow, John Miles.

This was originally slated to be the final Project album. Eric wrote all the words and music, except for one instrumental Alan wrote, with Andrew Powell contributing his usual orchestrations. Featured performers include the Project line-up from Gaudi, with Eric, Graham Dye, Leo Sayer, The Flying Pickets, Kiki Dee, Eric Stewart, Frankie Howerd, Marti Webb, Gary Howard, Chris Rainbow, and John Miles providing the vocals. Eric and Leo Sayer have wider vocal ranges than most listeners would think, and Frankie Howerd (best remembered as playing Mean Mr. Mustard in the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) delivers a wonderful theatric performance bit on "Sects Therapy". Produced by Alan, Engineered by Alan & Tony Richards.

Visit The Avenue for complete lyrics and more details.

JULY 15, 1997 The Definitive Collection Arista 18962.
Theme: N/A.
A 2-CD/tape retrospective covering everything Project from Tales to Try Anything Once (sans Freudiana), personally remastered by Alan.
Part of 'The Arista Masters' series.

1999 Eye In The Sky BMG Special Products.
Theme: N/A.
A low-budget compilation; part of "The Encore Collection".
This is the only Project album that prominently features an undistorted picture of Alan on the cover.

2000 Master Hits Arista.
Theme: N/A.
Another low-budget compilation, part of the Arista Heritage 'Master Hits' series. Cover art features a distorted picture of Alan (with a single, enlarged eye), which was first used in the gatefold packaging of the 20-bit SBM edition of Try Anything Once.

WHY DID THEY SPLIT?

The success of Freudiana on stage convinced Eric he wanted to do more stage musicals. Alan, however, was still interested in making great studio albums. Without Eric, the "Project" officially ended, as Alan decided to use his own name on the subsequent solo albums, and "The Alan Parsons Band" for the tours he and the remaining Project members did from 1994-2001. Eric also created the musicals "Gaudi" (more about Antonio Gaudi) and "Gambler" (based on The Turn Of A Friendly Card and Eye In The Sky). As of this writing (FEBRUARY, 2003), Eric is working on a musical called "Poe", based on Edgar Allan Poe and including many of the songs from the first Project album.

SOLO PROJECTS

1985 Ladyhawke - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK Atlantic 1-81248. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING
Re-issued 1995: GNP Crescendo GNPD 8042, with nine additional tracks/cues.

Ladyhawke director Richard Donner and producer Lauren Shuler(-Donner) were listening to the Project's tapes as they were scouting shooting locations for this movie, and recruited Andrew Powell to do the score. Produced and Engineered by Alan, and performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra, with Alan, Ian, David, and Stuart Elliott appearing from the Project.

1993 Symphonic Music Of Yes RCA Victor 61938. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: Alan's experiment with a Dolby Surround CD, with the songs of a band well suited for orchestral theater rock.

How the heck did Alan get involved with this one? Yes bassist Chris Squire produced solo albums by The Zombies lead vocalist, Colin Blunstone in the early 1970s, which featured Squire and Yes guitarist Steve Howe. It is my assumption that Alan did some of the engineering work for those. When Howe put forward the idea for this project in 1992, Alan was the best choice for producing and recording the orchestral portion of the album. It garnered another Grammy nomination for Alan, too. :-)

1993 Try Anything Once Arista 18741 (16-bit digital master), 18744 (20-bit SBM digital master, gold-plated). FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: "There isn't one consistent theme. If you find one, I'd like to know about it." -- Alan, from the 20-bit liner notes.

Well, Alan, if by some odd chance you do see this page, I found one: The demise of a partnership, and how to continue on alone. The album's title shows Alan's reluctance in doing his own solo works, and the song titles and lyrics further explore that concept.

Sticker: "THE ULTIMATE ALBUM TO TEST THE LIMITS OF YOUR CD PLAYER" It does, indeed.

Featured lead vocalists: David Pack, Chris Thompson, Eric Stewart, Jacqui Copeland.
Backing vocalists: Ian Bairnson, Alan Parsons.

Performers: Alan's son, Jeremy makes his debut as an additional guitarist, and Andrew Powell adds his own piano, autoharp, synth, and bass skills to the talent pool, in addition to the orchestrations. David Pack adds his guitar talents to the pool for the first time since Tales. Parsons, Pack, Bairnson, Powell, Copland, Elliott, and Phil Driscoll are among the featured composers this time out.

1994 LIVE Arcade (EU). FULL DIGITAL RECORDING
1995 The Very Best LIVE RCA Victor 68229 (North America). FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: Of course, this act that never toured finally did in 1994, sans Eric.

Chris Thompson and Gary Howard (who first worked with Alan on Freudiana) do very good impressions of all the Project's male lead vocalists on the live tracks. The North American release includes 3 new studio tracks, with Chris Thompson doing lead vocals on two: "When" (written by Ian), and "You're The Voice", a 1986 tune Thompson co-wrote with A. Qunta, Mitch Ryder (ex-of The Detroit Wheels) and Procol Harum's Keith Reid (which was originally recorded by ex-Little River Band vocalist John Farnham). The third new song features drummer Stuart Elliott making his lead vocal debut on his co-composition with Andrew Powell, "Take The Money And Run".

1996 On Air River North/A&M/PolyGram 51416 1237 2. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: The history of powered human flight.

Featured lead vocalists: Eric Stewart, Neil Lockwood (ex-ELO Part II), Steve Overland, Christopher Cross, Graham Dye.

The US and most international releases also feature a bonus multimedia disc for PC and Macintosh users, featuring neat drawings on aviation and flying mythology, flight records, Project trivia, brief bios of the performers, and more.

Composers: Bairnson, Parsons, Elliott, and Scott "Mandy" English (see the Barry Manilow page).
Band: Parsons, Bairnson, Elliott, Richard Cottle, John Giblin (bass for Lenny Zakatek's solo albums Alan worked on), and Gary Sanctuary (ex-Aztec Camera on piano and keys).

1999 The Time Machine Miramar 23146. FULL DIGITAL RECORDING

Theme: Time travel.

Featured lead vocalists: Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet), Neil Lockwood, (the long-awaited return of) Colin Blunstone, Maire Brennan (Clannad), Graham Dye, and Beverly Craven.
Backing vocalists: Alan Parsons, Ian Bairnson, Stuart Elliott, Chris Rainbow.

The first album Alan finished following his divorce from Smokey. This concept album is about time travel, not necessarily only about the H.G. Wells book of that title (although the international releases initially called the title track "H.G. Force" in homage to him). The Japanese release includes a bonus track, and Elliott's instrumental "The Time Machine (Part One)" was made into a video featuring Storm Thorgerson and Peter Curzon's wonderful graphics and voice-overs from Mike Myers' second Austin Powers movie (where the death ray was named THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT).
Band: Parsons (two tracks only), Bairnson (a Scottish jack of all trades except drums!), Elliott, Powell, Robyn Smith (keys), John Giblin, and Richard Cottle.
Composers: Bairnson and Elliott, with one instrumental by Parsons, and orchestrations by Powell.

The Alan Parsons Band officially broke up on friendly terms in September, 2001, with Alan and new family building their life in Los Angeles, and Ian and Stuart still back in the UK. They have not ruled out further collaborations, however.

As of this writing (FEBRUARY, 2003), Alan is in the studio working on a brand new solo album, and this one really will be solo, minus all the ex-Project members. Stay tuned...

SIDES

Looking at the Side projects list below, you'll notice many vocalists, whom Alan worked with early in his engineering
career, who have appeared on albums for both the Project and Alan solo.

These are listed in approximate chronological order; solo artists are listed with their affiliated groups.

The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Wings, George Harrison
The Hollies, Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, Terry Sylvester, Elton John
The Zombies, Colin Blunstone
Procol Harum, Gary Brooker
Pink Floyd
Al Stewart
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Andrew Powell, Stuart Elliott, Chris Harley (aka Chris Rainbow)
Pilot
Leo Sayer
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Chris Thompson
Ambrosia, David Pack
John Miles
Kate Bush (Alan has done little, but Andrew and Ian were regular contributors)
Keats (a side project of Colin Blunstone, Ian Bairnson and David Paton)
Lenny Zakatek
Vitamin Z (zed), Geoff Barradale
Yes (Symphonic Music Of Yes album, 1993)