Alan Parsons

Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, singer and record producer.

Parsons was the sound engineer on albums including the Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and the eponymous debut album by Ambrosia in 1975. Parsons's own group, The Alan Parsons Project, as well as his subsequent solo recordings, have also been commercially successful. He has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, with his first win occurring in 2019 for Best Immersive Audio Album for Eye in the Sky (35th Anniversary Edition).

After getting a job working in the tape duplication department at EMI, Parsons heard the master tape for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and decided to try talking his way into a job at Abbey Road Studios. In October 1967, at the age of 18, Parsons went to work as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road. He was a tape operator during the Beatles' Get Back sessions, and he earned his first credit on the LP Abbey Road. He became a regular there, engineering projects such as Wings' Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, five albums by the Hollies and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), for which he received his first Grammy Awards nomination.

"It was a bit of a frustration for me that I didn't get all the engineering credit", Parsons said of Dark Side of the Moon, "because Chris [Thomas] came in as mixing supervisor … I had been working on the album for a year and I obviously knew it inside-out by the mixing stage … There were times when I thought Chris was wrong, particularly about the use of limiting and compression on the mix, which I've never been a fan of … Although, later, I got the opportunity to mix the album the way I wanted when I did the quadraphonic version."

In his work with Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat", Parsons added the saxophone part and transformed the original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that put Stewart onto the charts.

Parsons also produced three albums by Pilot, a Scottish pop rock band, whose hits included "January" and "Magic". He also mixed the debut album by the American band Ambrosia and produced their second album, Somewhere I've Never Travelled. Parsons was nominated for a Grammy Award for both albums.

In 1975, he declined Pink Floyd's invitation to work on Wish You Were Here – the follow-up to Dark Side – and instead initiated the Alan Parsons Project with producer, songwriter, and occasional singer Eric Woolfson, whom he had met at Abbey Road. The Project consisted of a revolving group of studio musicians and vocalists, most notably the members of Pilot and (on the first album) the members of Ambrosia. Unlike most rock groups, the Alan Parsons Project never performed live during its heyday, although it did release several music videos. Its only live performance during its original incarnation was in 1990. It released ten albums, the last in 1987. The Project terminated in 1990 after Parsons and Woolfson split, with the Project's intended 11th album released that year as a Woolfson solo album. Parsons continued to release work in his own name and in collaboration with other musicians. Parsons and his band regularly toured many parts of the world.

Alan Parsons – guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion (1993–present)

P. J. Olsson – lead vocals (2004–present)

Todd Cooper – vocals, saxophone (2010–present)

Tom Brooks – keyboards, backing vocals (2012–present)

Dan Tracey – guitar, vocals (2016–present)

His father was Denys Parsons, the grandson of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Denys Parsons was a scientist, a filmmaker, and the press officer for the British Library, as well as a talented pianist and flautist. He developed the Parsons Code as a means of classifying musical melody and was the author of The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes (1975, revised 2008).

Parsons resides in Santa Barbara, California, US. He has two sons from his first marriage. He is married to Lisa Griffiths; they have two daughters.

Parsons was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music and music production.

1973 – Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon – Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

1975 – Ambrosia – Ambrosia – Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

1976 – Ambrosia – Somewhere I've Never Travelled – Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

1976 – The Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

1978 – The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid – Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical