Songoftheday 9/10/13 - Well even the longest night won't last forever, but too many hopes and dreams won't see the light...

The Alan Parsons Project - "Prime Time"
from the album Ammonia Avenue (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's Song of the Day is by the progressive-pop studio group the Alan Parsons Project, named for its co-leader who made a name for himself engineering classic albums for the Beatles and Pink Floyd (like their Dark Side Of The Moon). Along with collaborator Eric Woolfson and a myriad of studio musicians and singers, had carved themselves out a respectable career of their own. In 1984 their seventh album Ammonia Avenue had already produced a top-20 pop hit with "Don't Answer Me", their first to be a hit on MTV.

For their second single they released the album's opening track, "Prime Time", with vocals by Woolfson and a concept video based on a short story by John Collier, Evening Primrose, that dealt with department store mannequins coming to life (it was also made into a TV musical by Stephen Sondheim in the 60s)....

"Prime Time" became the Project's eighth and final top-40 pop hit in the US in June of 1984. It also went to #3 on the rock radio chart, their highest rank, and #10 on the adult-contemporary radio format. They managed a couple more minor hits on their underrated next album, including the sublime "Days Are Numbers (The Traveler)", which peaked as their last AC hit in 1985 at #11. Two years later their Stereotomy album gave them their last Hot 100 hit with the title track, while in 1987, their final Project studio set Gaudi's single "Standing On Higher Ground" matched "Prime Time"'s rank on the rock chart. But by the early 90s, Parsons and Woolfson split over creative differences, and the Project was no more. Each had released solo work to relatively scant reaction, and sadly, Woolfson passed in 2009. It's a shame, I was such a huge fan of the APP's sound, especially alone listening in headphones.

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After the split Parsons took the act on the road - here's "Prime Time" live...

Up tomorrow: A paranoid Motown son goes all Crank Yankers.