3 Career-Changing Albums Produced by Famed Engineer Alan Parsons

The Alan Parsons Project was unique in being named after a member who didn’t front the group. While Parsons did perform on the albums that bore his name—mainly on keyboards and synths—his greatest impact on those records came in his roles as engineer, producer, and songwriter. Part of the reason The Alan Parsons Project could be commercially viable right from its inception was that Parsons had already built his reputation as an engineer for some of rock’s most highly regarded bands. Parsons was an assistant engineer on The Beatles’ Abbey Road, and he was an engineer on Wings’ Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, The Hollies’ Hollies and Another Night, and Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother and Dark Side of the Moon.

Aside from his contributions to The Alan Parsons Project albums, Parsons’ production work has been less heralded. As the producer for the three albums featured here, Parsons was crucial to the sound of each of the artists that made them. Moreover, the work that he did on these albums played a key role in each artist’s trajectory.

Pilot by Pilot (1974)

Before it became a ubiquitous jingle for a diabetes medication, “Magic” was an international hit for the Scottish group Pilot. It came from the band’s self-titled album, which had the far more creative title From the Album of the Same Name outside of the U.S. While “Magic” may not remind many listeners of Parsons’ other work, the album’s other single “Just a Smile” features a Beatlesque melody and a droning organ reminiscent of Pink Floyd.

Parsons would go on to produce Pilot’s second album Second Flight, and his relationship with the band would extend far beyond that. Vocalist/bassist David Paton and guitarist Ian Bairnson became long-standing members of The Alan Parsons Project, and drummer Stuart Tosh and keyboardist Billy Lyall also contributed to the collective’s albums. The most recognizable carryover from the Pilot-Parsons relationship is Paton’s turn as the lead vocalist on The Alan Parsons Project’s 1985 hit “Let’s Talk About Me.”

The Best Years of Our Lives by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (1975)

One of the first albums Parsons produced was Cockney Rebel’s second album The Psychomodo, which he co-produced with the band’s frontman, the late Steve Harley. A few months after the album’s release, everyone but Harley left Cockney Rebel. Harley quickly regrouped with a new Cockney Rebel lineup, and they recorded The Best Years of Our Lives in late 1974. With Parsons and Harley at the helm once again, the band delivered its most popular album, as well as one of the most commercially successful singles in the history of the UK charts. “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)”—which was angrily directed at his former bandmates—reached No. 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart in February 1975 and subsequently reentered the chart four times. It was also the band’s only entry on the Billboard Hot 100, topping out at No. 96.

When Harley first wrote “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” on acoustic guitar, it was much slower than the recorded version. Harley took Parsons’ suggestion to increase the tempo as well as alter his vocal phrasing in the chorus. Duran Duran, Erasure, and The Wedding Present, among several other artists, recorded their own uptempo versions of the song, with the latter two becoming chart hits in the UK. Parsons played a key role in making Harley’s biggest hit, and Harley would return the favor, providing lead vocals on “The Voice,” a track from the Alan Parsons Project’s breakthrough album, I Robot.

The success of “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” and the second single “Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)” helped The Best Years of Our Lives to receive Gold certification and a No. 4 peak position on the album chart in the UK. In the U.S., it registered on Record World’s album chart (but not Billboard’s), peaking at No. 182.

Year of the Cat by Al Stewart (1976)

Stewart and Parsons might seem like a strange match. While Parsons had typically worked with rock groups that veered toward pop or prog, Stewart had made his reputation with folky albums that explored historical events and figures. Parsons, however, found Stewart’s background to be a plus. As Parsons explained in a 2022 interview for Mix, “The introduction came from a tech guy at Abbey Road, Seumas Ewens, who did tape copying—but was also very into folk-rock music. I jumped at the chance.”

Parsons produced Stewart’s 1975 album Modern Times, and it was a commercial and stylistic breakthrough. That set the stage for Year of the Cat, which became the first of two Top-10 and Platinum-certified albums for Stewart. The title track became Stewart’s signature hit, but another single, “On the Border,” assured he would not be relegated to one-hit wonder status. Parsons came up with the idea to include Spanish guitar on the track, but he wasn’t sure who could play the part. Pianist Peter White volunteered, and Stewart said in a BBC interview he nailed the part on “either the first or second take,” despite having never played guitar for a recording before.

Parsons would also produce Stewart’s 1978 album Time Passages, which would prove to be nearly as popular as Year of the Cat.

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