A staff engineer at EMI Records' recording studios, Parsons first attracted attention for his work on the final Beatles' album, Abbey Road. Such skills were then employed on several of Wings' early releases, but the artist's reputation was established in the wake of his contributions to Pink Floyd's multi-million seller, Dark Side Of The Moon, and his productions for Pilot, Cockney Rebel and Al Stewart. Inspired by the "concept" approach beloved by the latter act, Parsons forged a partnership with songwriter Eric Woolfson and created the Alan Parsons Project. The duo's debut Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, in which they adapted the work of Edgar Allen Poe, set the pattern for future releases whereby successive creations examined specific themes, including science fiction (I Robot) and mysticism (Pyramid). By calling on a circle of talented session men and guest performers, including Arthur Brown, Gary Brooker, Graham Dye (ex-Scarlet Party) and Colin Blunstone, Parsons and Woolfson created a crafted, if rather sterile, body of work. However, despite enjoying a US Top 3 single in 1982 with "Eye In The Sky", the Project's subsequent recordings have failed to repeat the commercial success of those early releases. He became the head of EMI studio interests in June 1997. In 1999, Mike Myers used him as the butt of a joke in his second Austin Powers movie, the end result of which was a Myers/Parsons composition, "Dr Evil Austin Powers Mix", on The Time Machine.
