Eye in the Sky (album)



Eye in the Sky is the sixth studio album by English rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in June 1982 by Arista Records.

Overview
Songs on this album are in a number of different styles, from cool and funky to lyrical and heavily orchestrated. The Hipgnosis-designed sleeve is green with an image of the Eye of Horus, which was gold-foil stamped for early pressings of the LP. It is variously reported as The Alan Parsons Project's best-selling album, and was the last platinum record in the United States from the band (joining I Robot and The Turn of a Friendly Card).

Vocal performers are Eric Woolfson, David Paton, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, Elmer Gantry and Colin Blunstone.

Eye in the Sky contains the Project's biggest hit, the title track with lead vocals by Eric Woolfson. The album itself was a major success, reaching the Top 10 (and sometimes the number 1 slot) in numerous countries.

Eye in the Sky is the first of three albums the Project recorded on analogue equipment and mixed directly to the digital master tape (a fact not widely known until the release of the liner notes of Vulture Culture, where this detail was first revealed, and confirmed with the release of the remastered edition in 2007: "An Analog multitrack recording mixed to Sony 1610 digital format").

The album features the instrumental piece "Sirius", which has become a staple of many college and professional sporting arenas throughout North America. It is best known for its use by the Chicago Bulls to introduce its starting line-up during its championship years of the 1990s. "Sirius" segues into "Eye in the Sky". The former is customarily followed by the latter on airplay, though not always in live performances — at the 1995 World Liberty Concert "Sirius" was played as the introduction to "Breakaway" (from the Alan Parsons solo album Try Anything Once), with Candy Dulfer on saxophone.

On 1 December 2017, a 35th-anniversary-edition box set of the album was released, for which Alan Parsons, along with surround mastering engineers Dave Donnelly and PJ Olsson, won the Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

Personnel

 * Chris Rainbow: main vocal (Track 4)
 * Lenny Zakatek: main vocal (Tracks 6 & 9)
 * Elmer Gantry: main vocal (Track 7)
 * Eric Woolfson: keyboards, main vocal (Tracks 2, 5, 12 & 14)
 * Colin Blunstone: main vocal (Track 10)
 * The English Chorale: choir vocals
 * Alan Parsons: keyboards, Fairlight programming, vocals
 * David Paton: acoustic, electric & bass guitars, main vocal (Track 3)
 * Ian Bairnson: acoustic & electric guitars
 * Mel Collins: saxophone
 * Stuart Elliott: drums, percussion