Alan Parsons

Born on December 20, 1948 in London, England, Alan Parsons is a musician, songwriter, producer, engineer, and band leader best-known for being involved in some of the most successful albums of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Beginning his musical career in 1967 at the age of 18, Parsons was hired by Abbey Road Studios as an assistant engineer. While he had worked on a myriad of projects in his early days at Abbey Road, he received his first credit on The Beatles’ Abbey Road, one of the biggest rock albums of all time. Parsons would then go on to work with The Hollies, Paul McCartney & Wings, Pilot, Ambrosia, and many others. His engineering work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon earned him his first Grammy Award. Eager to move in a new direction, Parsons turned down Pink Floyd’s request to engineer their Wish You Were Here album in order to focus on his own group, The Alan Parsons Project. Founded alongside songwriter and vocalist Eric Woolfson, The Alan Parsons Project was comprised mostly of studio musicians. The band’s debut album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, was released in 1976. While the album wasn’t initially a big commercial success, their second release, I Robot (1977), entered the Top 10 in the U.S. charts. The band released a series of successful albums throughout the rest of the ‘70s and all through the ‘80s. Some of their best-selling albums included Eve (1979), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), and Ammonia Avenue (1983). The band had several Top 30 hits in the U.S. including “Eye in the Sky” (1982) and “Don’t Answer Me” (1984). While not released under the Alan Parsons Project name, the duo’s final work together was 1990’s Freudiana, which was credited chiefly to Woolfson. Parson continued to record under his own name beginning with his 1993 album Try Anything Once. His Alan Parsons Project partner Eric Woolfson died in 2009. Parsons released the album The Secret in 2019, his first studio release in 15 years.