{"id":29063,"date":"2025-04-14T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29063"},"modified":"2025-02-17T14:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T19:22:20","slug":"five-alan-parsons-project-tracks-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/five-alan-parsons-project-tracks-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Alan Parsons Project Tracks You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Formed in 1975 by its namesake, the acclaimed producer and engineer, The Alan Parsons Project released its eighth studio album, <em>Vulture Culture<\/em> in March 1985. While the album wasn\u2019t a big hit in the U.S., it fared well on the charts across Europe and in Australia. The album followed on with APP\u2019s established mix of personnel \u2013 a coterie of musicians including Parsons and former members of the rock-pop group Pilot \u2013 as well as the Project\u2019s trademark approach to vocals. For <em>Vulture Culture<\/em>, Alan Parsons and his longtime musical partner Eric Woolfson enlisted the vocal talents of several singers who had appeared on previous albums. In observance of the 40th anniversary of <em>Vulture Culture<\/em>, here are five standout tracks from the early days of The Alan Parsons Project.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether\u201d from<em> Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)<\/em> (1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe debut release from The Alan Parsons Project was a concept album, with original songs built around the work of 19th century poet and author Edgar Allan Poe. An atmospheric and progressive-leaning collection, Tales wasn\u2019t quite the commercial success that later APP albums would be. But it\u2019s lauded today as one of the best releases \u2013 perhaps the very finest \u2013 from the Project. Sessioner John Miles provided the lead vocals on \u201cDr. Tarr,\u201d and the song was released as a single. It just dented the <em>Billboard<\/em> Top 40 at #37.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D1E9mjvGYq8?si=2EX-sMHktpMiLlWi\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI Wouldn\u2019t Want to Be Like You\u201d from <em>I Robot<\/em> (1977)<\/strong><br \/>\nOriginally conceived as concept album and homage to the work of sci-fi novelist Isaac Asimov, the Alan Parsons Project\u2019s<em> I Robot<\/em> was, in the end, simply a collection of great songs. Bookended with a pair of stirring instrumental pieces, the album showcased the vocal talents of a half dozen lead singers. Frequent APP session musician Lenny Zakatek took the mic for \u201cI Wouldn\u2019t Want to Be Like You,\u201d the funky tune most in keeping with the album\u2019s (ultimately abandoned) concept.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qOwFVowEugQ?si=rozYg6KqfXRTdlBp\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Eagle Will Rise Again\u201d from <em>Pyramid<\/em> (1978)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe haunting vocals of Colin Blunstone are part of what made The Zombies one of pop\u2019s great groups. His singing on \u201cShe\u2019s Not There,\u201d \u201cTime of the Season\u201d and other classics established him as one of pop\u2019s premier singers. Alan Parsons availed himself of Colin Blunstone\u2019s talents on several occasions, but his vocal on \u201cThe Eagle Will Rise Again\u201d is among the most memorable of Blunstone\u2019s APP performances.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q29ijCTNpaw?si=NYv7xjvluNbefnyb\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDon\u2019t Hold Back\u201d from <em>Eve<\/em> (1979)<\/strong><br \/>\nClaire Torry is best known for her bravura \u2013 and largely improvised \u2013 wordless lead vocal on Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cThe Great Gig in the Sky.\u201d That and the nine other songs on the landmark 1973 LP <em>The Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> were engineered by Alan Parsons. Parsons brought Torry into the Project for this deep album cut. While it\u2019s not among the APP\u2019s better-known tunes, it\u2019s a solid number that showcases Torry\u2019s talents applied to a song with actual lyrics.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6s5jTXAqq7E?si=f1rTkfEedbI8EQY3\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTime\u201d from <em>The Turn of a Friendly Card<\/em> (1980)<\/strong><br \/>\nEric Woolfson had been Parsons\u2019 collaborator and co-songwriter since the Project\u2019s early days. And despite Arista Records\u2019 encouragement to use him as the Project\u2019s lead vocalist on more of its recorded output, he took the lead only occasionally on early APP releases. But his vocal on this track from <em>The Turn of a Friendly Card<\/em> gave The Alan Parsons Project its second-biggest hit single (behind \u201cDon\u2019t Answer Me\u201d from 1984\u2019s <em>Ammonia Avenue<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zhRzORqNa0E?si=HiB4rOoMERCNflHd\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Formed in 1975 by its namesake, the acclaimed producer and engineer, The Alan Parsons Project released its eighth studio album, Vulture Culture in March 1985. While the album wasn\u2019t a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,51,56],"tags":[4217,4218],"class_list":["post-29063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-pop","category-prog","tag-alan-parsons","tag-alan-parsons-project","cat-27-id","cat-51-id","cat-56-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29065,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29063\/revisions\/29065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}