Alan Parsons facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Alan Parsons OBE
Parsons in 2017
Background information
Born	(1948-12-20) 20 December 1948 (age 76) Willesden, Middlesex, England
Died	Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day
Genres	Rock, progressive rock
Occupation(s)	Audio engineer, composer, musician, record producer, director
Instruments	Guitar, keyboards, bass, vocals, flute
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Legacy, Arista, Fox, Mercury, Frontiers

Alan Parsons, born on December 20, 1948, is a talented English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, singer, and record producer. He is well-known for his amazing work behind the scenes on famous albums.

Parsons was the sound engineer for iconic albums like the Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970). He also worked on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973). His own music group, the Alan Parsons Project, and his solo albums have also been very successful. He has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards. In 2019, he won his first Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album for Eye in the Sky (35th Anniversary Edition).

Alan Parsons' Music Journey

Starting at Abbey Road Studios

After getting a job in the tape copying department at EMI, Alan Parsons heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This inspired him to try to get a job at Abbey Road Studios. In October 1967, at just 18 years old, Parsons started working as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road.

He helped with the recording sessions for the Beatles' "Get Back" project. He earned his first official credit on their album Abbey Road. He became a regular engineer there, working on projects for many artists. These included Wings' albums Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. He also worked on five albums by the Hollies.

Engineering The Dark Side of the Moon

One of his most famous projects was Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). For this work, he received his first Grammy Awards nomination. Parsons later mentioned that he wished he had received full engineering credit for Dark Side of the Moon. He had worked on the album for a year and knew it very well. He even got to mix the album his own way later for the quadraphonic version.

Producing and Collaborating

Parsons also helped shape the sound of other artists' music. For example, he worked on Al Stewart's song "Year of the Cat". He added a saxophone part that changed the song from folk to a jazz-influenced ballad. This helped the song become a hit.

He also produced three albums for the Scottish pop rock band Pilot. Their popular songs included "January" and "Magic." Parsons also mixed the first album by the American band Ambrosia. He then produced their second album, Somewhere I've Never Travelled. Both albums earned him Grammy nominations.

The Alan Parsons Project

In 1975, Pink Floyd asked Parsons to work on their next album, Wish You Were Here. However, Parsons decided to start his own group instead. He teamed up with producer and songwriter Eric Woolfson. They had met at Abbey Road Studios.

Their group was called the Alan Parsons Project. It featured different studio musicians and singers. Unlike most rock bands, the Alan Parsons Project rarely performed live. They released ten albums, with their last one in 1987. The Project ended in 1990 when Parsons and Woolfson decided to work on separate projects. Parsons continued to release music under his own name and with other musicians. He and his band often toured around the world.

Parsons' Musical Talents

Even though he is a skilled singer, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist, and flautist, Parsons usually only sang small parts on his albums. His keyboard playing was very noticeable on the Alan Parsons Project albums. However, his flute playing was rarely featured. He also briefly returned to manage Abbey Road Studios. Parsons continued to produce music for other bands as well.

Guitarist Ian Bairnson worked with Parsons for a long time. He played on Parsons' albums after the Project, including Try Anything Once, On Air, The Time Machine, and The Secret.

Later Career and Awards

In 1998, Parsons became a vice-president at EMI Studios Group, which included Abbey Road Studios. He soon left this role to focus on more creative work. He remained a creative consultant for the group.

Parsons has received many gold and platinum awards from different countries. He has also been nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards. In 2006, he was nominated for Best Surround Sound Album for A Valid Path. In 2019, he won his first Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album. This was for the remastered 35th-anniversary edition of Eye in the Sky.

Touring and Educational Work

From 2001 to 2005, Parsons led a Beatles tribute show called A Walk Down Abbey Road. Famous musicians like Todd Rundgren and Ann Wilson from Heart performed in it. The show featured musicians playing each other's hits and then performing Beatles songs.

Since 1999, he has toured as the Alan Parsons Live Project. The band includes lead singer P. J. Olsson, guitarist Jeff Kollman, and drummer Danny Thompson. They also have keyboardist Tom Brooks, bass guitarist Guy Erez, and others. This band performed live in Medellín, Colombia, in 2013. This performance was recorded for TV and released as a live CD and DVD.

In 2010, Parsons released a single called "All Our Yesterdays." He also launched an educational DVD series called The Art and Science of Sound Recording (ASSR). This series teaches about music production and how to record audio. The single "All Our Yesterdays" was created while making ASSR. The series, narrated by Billy Bob Thornton, provides detailed lessons on sound recording.

Parsons produced Jake Shimabukuro's album Grand Ukulele, released in 2012. He also sang and played instruments on the song "Precious Life" by Lichtmond. He appeared on The Prog Collective album, singing "The Technical Divide."

In 2013, Parsons engineered Steven Wilson's album The Raven that Refused to Sing (And Other Stories). A live album called LiveSpan was released in late 2013. It was recorded during a tour in Germany and Austria.

In 2017, a special deluxe box set was released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Eye in the Sky. It included rare and unreleased music.

On July 19, 2018, Parsons and engineer Noah Bruskin opened a new recording studio called ParSonics. This studio was used to record Alan Parsons’ album, The Secret.

On April 26, 2019, Parsons released The Secret, his first new studio album in 15 years. His most recent studio album, From the New World, was released on July 15, 2022.

Alan Parsons' Band Members

Current Members

Alan Parsons – guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion (1993–present)
P. J. Olsson – lead vocals (2004–present)
Guy Erez – bass (2010–present)
Todd Cooper – vocals, saxophone (2010–present)
Danny Thompson - drums (2010-present)
Tom Brooks – keyboards, backing vocals (2012–present)
Dan Tracey – guitar, vocals (2016–present)
Jeff Kollman – lead guitar, vocals (2017–present)

Former Members

Ian Bairnson – lead guitar, saxophone (1993–2000; died 2023)
Stuart Elliott – drums (1993–2000)
Richard Cottle – keyboards, saxophone (1994–1995)
Gary Howard – vocals, guitar (1994)
Chris Thompson – vocals, guitar, percussion (1994–1995)
Andrew Powell – keyboards (1994–1995)
Jeremy Meek – bass, vocals (1994)
Peter Beckett – vocals, keyboards (1995–1998)
Felix Krish – bass (1995)
John Giblin – bass (1996–1998; died 2023)
Gary Sanctuary – keyboards (1996)
Neil Lockwood – vocals, guitar (1996–2000; died 2025)
John Beck – keyboards (1997–2002, 2005)
Dick Nolan – bass (1999–2000)
David Pack – vocals, guitar (1999; select shows, 2001)
Tony Hadley – vocals (1999; European legs)
Godfrey Townsend – guitar (2001–2009)
Todd Rundgren – vocals, guitar (2001–2002)
Ann Wilson – vocals, guitar (2001)
John Entwistle – bass, vocals (2001; died 2002)
Steve Loungo – drums (2001)
Christopher Cross – vocals, guitar (2002–2003)
Jack Bruce – bass, vocals (2002–2003; died 2014)
Mark Farner – vocals, guitar (2002–2003)
Steve Murphy – drums (2002–2003)
Manny Focarazzo – keyboards (2003–2014)
John Montagna – bass (2003–2009)
Kip Winger – vocals (2005, 2007)
Alastair Greene – guitar (2010–2015)

Family and Personal Life

Alan Parsons' father was Denys Parsons. Denys was a scientist, filmmaker, and press officer for the British Library. He was also a talented pianist and flautist. He created the Parsons code for classifying musical melodies. He also wrote The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes.

Alan Parsons lives in Santa Barbara, California, USA. He has two sons from his first marriage. He is married to Lisa Griffiths, and they have two daughters.

Discography

Albums with The Alan Parsons Project

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976)
I Robot (1977)
Pyramid (1978)
Eve (1979)
The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980)
Eye in the Sky (1982)
Ammonia Avenue (1984)
Vulture Culture (1985)
Stereotomy (1985)
Gaudi (1987)
Freudiana (1990)
The Sicilian Defence (2014)

Solo Studio Albums

Try Anything Once (1993)
On Air (1996)
The Time Machine (1999)
A Valid Path (2004)
The Secret (2019)
From the New World (2022)

Solo Live Albums

The Very Best Live (1995)
Eye 2 Eye: Live in Madrid (2010)
Alan Parsons LiveSpan (2013)
Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, Live in Colombia (2016)
The Neverending Show - Live in The Netherlands (2021)
One Note Symphony – Live In Tel Aviv (2022)

Albums as Engineer

Abbey Road (The Beatles) (1969)
Atom Heart Mother (Pink Floyd) (1970)
Wild Life (Wings) (1971)
Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) (1973)
Red Rose Speedway (Paul McCartney and Wings) (1973)
Ambrosia (Ambrosia) (1975)
Year of the Cat (Al Stewart) (1976)
The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Steven Wilson) (2013)

Albums as Producer

From the Album of the Same Name (Pilot) (1974)
The Psychomodo (Cockney Rebel) (1974)
Second Flight (Pilot) (1975)
Year of the Cat (Al Stewart) (1976)
Somewhere I've Never Travelled (Ambrosia) (1976)
Grand Ukulele (Jake Shimabukuro) (2012)
Blackfield V (Blackfield) (2017)

Honours and Awards

Alan Parsons was honored with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2021. This award recognized his great contributions to music and music production.

Grammy Nominations and Win

Parsons has received many Grammy nominations for his work as an engineer and producer:

1973: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1975: Ambrosia – Ambrosia (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1976: Ambrosia – Somewhere I've Never Travelled (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1976: The Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1978: The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1978: Alan Parsons – Producer of the Year
1979: Ice Castles – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture)
1979: The Alan Parsons Project – Eve (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1981: The Alan Parsons Project – The Turn of a Friendly Card (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1982: The Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical)
1986: The Alan Parsons Project – ""Where's The Walrus?"" (Best Rock Instrumental Performance)
2007: Alan Parsons – A Valid Path (Best Surround Sound Album)
2019: Alan Parsons, Dave Donnelly, & PJ Olsson – "Eye in the Sky 35th Anniversary Edition" (Won Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album)