How an Unlikely Hit Convinced Alan Parsons His “Project” Might Just Have Staying Power

The Alan Parsons Project turned into one of the most successful bands of the 70s and 80s. But when they began, they were, as the name implies, a project, something undertaken with no assurance that it would have any future to it.

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Luckily, the two men who started the enterprise found enough top-notch collaborators to get the ball rolling with an impressive debut album. And they even snuck into the US Top 40 with their first ever single.

A Fateful Meeting

Alan Parsons didn’t initially like the idea of his name being put out in front to sell any kind of musical enterprise. For many years, he had thrived as the guy behind the scenes. His work as an engineer adorned a few of the most consequential albums of all time, including The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.

Both of those albums were made at EMI’s studios on Abbey Road in London. It was there that Parsons met Eric Woolfson. Woolfson was an enterprising songwriter looking to make his own mark on the music business.

In the early stages of their working relationship, Woolfson served as Parsons’ manager. He secured him work as a producer on a number of albums. But the two men started to have ambitions that skewed a little bit grander. As in concept albums focused on famed 19th-century writers grand.

Project Initiated

The two men had noted how the film world had transformed from studio-driven to auteur-driven. In other words, talented directors held the biggest clout. They wondered why the same thing couldn’t take place in the music industry with producers. And they decided to test out their hypothesis.

Pink Floyd wanted Parsons to help them on their 1975 album Wish You Were Here. But Parsons decided to cast his lot with Woolfson, who had been writing songs based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Musicians from bands that Parsons had recently produced pitched in to help on the recordings.

Tapes of these sessions were informally labeled The Alan Parsons Project. And, much to Parsons’ dismay, the name stuck when it came time for the album Tales Of Mystery And Imagination to be released in 1976. But surely such a project couldn’t deliver a hit single, could it? Poe himself wouldn’t even consider such an unlikely twist.

A “Fether”-y Touch

Poe wrote the short story “The System Of Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether” in 1845. It’s a typically harrowing tale of a sanitarium. The story’s twist is somewhat telegraphed by the title. Woolfson and Parsons created the song “(The System Of) Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether” for Tales Of Mystery And Imagination.

The lyrics of the song don’t really have much to do with the plot of the story, which is probably for the best. Instead, the song mostly suggests the titular healers as a cure for the pressures and ails of modern life. If you’re stuck in a rut or feeling out of sorts, the song suggests you should try these guys to turn it around.

It features a catchy, repetitive melody and some potent vocals from British artist John Miles. And, shockingly enough, it squeaked into the US Top 40 at No. 37. The album also caught on, leading Parsons and Woolfson to wonder if there might be more to the project than just a single LP.

Eventually, Woolfson convinced Parsons that he was best-equipped to sing the songs that he was writing. It’s his voice you hear on APP classics like “Eye In The Sky” and “Time”. But they might not have made it that far without “(The System Of) Dr. Tarr And Mr. Fether” as a starting point.

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