Freudiana, Gaudi, and Gambler were three musicals that included some Project songs like "Eye in the Sky", "Time", "Inside Looking Out", and "Limelight". While Parsons pursued his own solo career and took many session players of the Project on the road for the first time in a successful worldwide tour, Woolfson went on to produce musical plays influenced by the Project's music. 1987's Gaudi would be the Project's final release, though it had planned to record an album called Freudiana (1990) next.Įven though the studio version of Freudiana was produced by Parsons (and featured the regular Project session musicians, making it an 'unofficial' Project album), it was primarily Woolfson's idea to turn it into a musical. There were fewer hit singles, and declining album sales. After those successes, however, the Project began to fade from view. " Don't Answer Me" became the Project's last successful single in the United States it reached the top 15 on the American charts in 1984. The singles " I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", " Games People Play", "Damned If I Do", "Time" (the first single to feature Woolfson's lead vocal) and " Eye in the Sky" had a notable impact on the Billboard Hot 100.
However, the Project was always more popular in North America, Ibero-America, and Continental Europe than in Parsons's home country, never achieving a UK Top 40 single or Top 20 album.
Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Project's popularity continued to grow. According to the 2007 re-mastered album liner notes, this was the first rock song to use a digital vocoder, with Alan Parsons speaking lyrics through it, although others such as Bruce Haack pioneered this field in the previous decade.ġ977–1990: Mainstream success and final releases Īrista Records then signed the Alan Parsons Project for further albums. The song " The Raven" featured lead vocals by the actor Leonard Whiting. The Project's first album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976), released by 20th Century Fox Records and including major contributions by all members of Pilot and Ambrosia, was a success, reaching the Top 40 in the US Billboard 200 chart. Parsons produced and engineered songs written and composed by the two, and the first Alan Parsons Project was begun. Recalling his earlier Edgar Allan Poe material, Woolfson saw a way to combine his and Parsons's talents. If the film industry was becoming a director's medium, Woolfson felt the music business might well become a producer's medium. Woolfson came up with the idea of making an album based on developments in the film industry-the focal point of the films' promotion shifted from film stars to directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. He managed Parsons's career as a producer and engineer through a string of successes, including Pilot, Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel, John Miles, Al Stewart, Ambrosia, and the Hollies. This was the start of their longstanding friendly business relationship. Woolfson's idea was to manage Alan and help his already successful production career. Woolfson, a songwriter and composer, was working as a session pianist while composing material for a concept album based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Parsons acted as Assistant Engineer on the Beatles' albums Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), engineered Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and produced several acts for EMI Records. 1.2 1977–1990: Mainstream success and final releasesĬareer 1974–1976: Formation and debut Īlan Parsons met Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974.Tarr and Professor Fether", " I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", " Games People Play", " Time", " Snake Eyes", " Sirius"/" Eye in the Sky", " Old and Wise", and " Don't Answer Me". Some of their most notable songs are " The Raven", " (The System of) Dr. The Alan Parsons Project released eleven studio albums in its 15-year career, including the successful I Robot and Eye in the Sky. Almost all the songs on the Project's albums are credited to "Woolfson/Parsons". A songwriter by profession, Woolfson was also a composer, a pianist, and a singer. Parsons was an audio engineer and producer by profession, but also a musician and a composer. They were accompanied by a varying number of session musicians and some relatively consistent session players such as guitarist Ian Bairnson, arranger Andrew Powell, bassist and vocalist David Paton, drummer Stuart Elliott, and vocalists Lenny Zakatek and Chris Rainbow. The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 19, whose core membership consisted of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.