The Alan Parsons Project "Eve"

Eve is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project. It was released in 1979. Eve's focus is on the strengths and characteristics of women, and the problems they face in the world of men. The album had originally been intended to focus on "great women in history", but evolved into a wider concept. The album features several songs from a misogynist point of view, unusual for an Alan Parsons Project album.

Eve is The Alan Parsons Project's first album with singer Chris Rainbow. The album's opening instrumental "Lucifer" was a major hit in Europe, and "Damned If I Do" reached the US Top 30. "Lucifer" also is used as title track for the German political TV show Monitor.

The cover art for Eve by Hipgnosis features two women wearing veils, with their faces partially in shadow. The image wraps around from left side of the front cover to the back. Two of the women are shown on the front cover, with the third on the back. On the shaded part of each woman's face, the shadows and veils partially conceal disfiguring scars and sores.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.

Side one

1. "Lucifer" instrumental 5:09
2. "You Lie Down with Dogs" Lenny Zakatek 3:47
3. "I'd Rather Be a Man" David Paton 3:53
4. "You Won't Be There" Dave Townsend 3:34
5. "Winding Me Up" Chris Rainbow 4:04

Total length: 20:27

Side two

1. "Damned If I Do" Lenny Zakatek 4:50
2. "Don't Hold Back" Clare Torry 3:37
3. "Secret Garden" Chris Rainbow 4:41
4. "If I Could Change Your Mind" Lesley Duncan 5:49

Total length: 18:57

America "Silent Letter/Alibi (Special Box Edition)"

Silent Letter is the eighth original studio album by American folk rock duo America, released by Capitol Records in June 1979.

This was the first America studio album following the departure of Dan Peek, the first America release on Capitol Records, and the last to feature George Martin as producer.
It was also their first studio album since their debut to have a title beginning with a letter other than "H". The title itself acknowledges the missing "H" by its wry reference to silent letters in the English language.

The album contains fast-paced disco songs, piano power-ballads, often sung by Gerry Beckley, and steady speed pop-rock songs.
The album was not a commercial success, reaching only number 110 on the Billboard album chart. It did produce three minor hit singles. "Only Game in Town" reached 107 on the Billboard singles chart; "All My Life" (number 48 on the Adult Contemporary chart) was a big hit in Asia; and "All Around" hit number 45 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Alibi is the ninth original studio album by American folk rock duo America, released by Capitol Records in 1980.

Prior to their second album on Capitol, Bunnell and Beckley amicably parted ways with George Martin in an effort to try a new musical direction. For the new album, the group utilized two producers -- Matthew McCauley and Fred Mollin. While Silent Letter was recorded by Bunnell, Beckley and their backing band (Willie Leacox, Michael Woods, David Dickey and Jim Calire), Alibi was a virtual roll-call of the burgeoning West Coast music scene. The recording included musicians such as Timothy B. Schmit, Waddy Wachtel, Mike Baird, Lee Sklar, Richard Page, Norton Buffalo and Steve Lukather.

Alibi, released in August 1980, was the second America album not to feature a picture of the band members on the cover. (The first was a Kauai sunset photo on "Harbor," where that album was recorded.) Instead, the cover sported a picture of a doll's head in the foreground of a desert landscape. Dewey Bunnell said he chose the picture while looking through the archives of acclaimed photographer Henry Diltz. The album was also unusual in the era of vinyl primacy in that it did not have numbered sides. Because the group and Capitol disagreed on which side would be side one, they agreed on a compromise: the sides would be labelled "Our Side" and "Their Side."

The album only peaked at number 142 on the Billboard album chart in the US. No singles charted in the US, but in Italy "Survival" was a top 5 hit and the whole album peaked at 2: this happened only on the first weeks of 1982, after the band took part, as special guest, at the Sanremo Music Festival.

This album, had its release fallen during the Warner Bros years, could have been a huge success. It has several solid fast and slow songs and displayed the broad talents of America. Along with Survival, Might Be Your Love, Hangover, Valentine and I Do Believe In you were catchy and rockier songs that certainly deserved airplay. Hangover did on many FM stations. America may have chosen the wrong single to be released on this album. The unusual album cover design, along with a new band logo, may have been a factor in the disappointing sales. Their follow up release would return to more traditional art direction, including the use of their classic logo.

Although Alibi was yet another commercial disappointment for America, the band's fortunes would dramatically improve with their next album, View From The Ground (1982), which included the Top Ten smash, "You Can Do Magic."

McCauley would later produce several tracks on America's Perspective album in 1984, while Mollin returned in 2011 to produce America's cover album, Back Pages.

Mike & The Mechanics "Living Years"

Living Years is the second album by Mike + The Mechanics, released in 1988. The album reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.

Mike Rutherford began writing songs for the album in September 1987, shortly after the conclusion of Genesis's Invisible Touch Tour. However, he found himself immediately stricken with writer's block, a circumstance he attributes to stress over the complications with his wife's current pregnancy, which nearly ended in the death of the child. The baby (Rutherford's third) was safely delivered in November, and Rutherford said that the relief made him feel "like a new man". In January he entered an extremely prolific songwriting period, and by the end of the month he had what he and producer/co-writer Christopher Neil felt was a good album's worth of material. In light of this, Neil wanted to move up the recording sessions, which had been scheduled for April. Rutherford vetoed the idea, however, and with his burst of inspiration still running, most of the songs that eventually appeared on the album were written over the next two months.

The first single taken off the album, "Nobody's Perfect," peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The next single off the album, "The Living Years", was a worldwide number one hit, reaching that mark on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending 25 March 1989. The song also reached number one on the Australian ARIA singles chart the week ending 13 May 1989. In the United Kingdom, it spent three weeks at number 2 in January and February 1989, behind Marc Almond and Gene Pitney's reworking of "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart."

The title song was co-written by Rutherford and B. A. Robertson, both of whose fathers had recently died. However, the lyrics were written solely by Robertson, and dealt with Robertson's strained relationship with his father and the birth of his son three months after his father's death. Paul Carrack, who would sing lead on the recording, had himself lost his father when he was only eleven years old, and he continues to feature the song regularly in his solo performances.

A third single off the album, "Seeing is Believing", reached number 62 on the Billboard chart.

Phil Collins and Tony Banks, Rutherford's Genesis bandmates, made a guest appearance playing the riff on "Black & Blue" (a sample by Banks of Collins and Rutherford playing a riff during the Invisible Touch sessions).


The Living Years Deluxe Edition was released on 20 January 2014, featuring extensive liner notes by journalist Mario Giammetti, a new recording of the hit song with Andrew Roachford on vocals and a bonus CD of live and rare tracks.

Mike & The Mechanics "Hits"

Hits is a compilation album by Mike + The Mechanics, released in 1996 except in the USA and Canada, where it was released in 2005. It contains nearly all of the band's hits up to the time of its release, omitting only "All I Need is a Miracle" (the 1996 remake of the song, which was also a hit, is included instead), "Seeing is Believing", the cover of the Beatles "Revolution", "Stop Baby", "Hanging By A Thread" and "Mea Culpa".

Shocking Blue "Venus"

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band, formed in The Hague in 1967. The band spawned a number of psychedelic rock hits throughout the counterculture movements era during the 1960s and early 1970s, including Never Marry a Railroad Man, Mighty Joe, Love Buzz, Blossom Lady, Inkpot and "Venus". The latter became their biggest hit and went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970.

The band had sold 13.5 million disks by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974, when the hippie, flower power and other counterculture movements around the world began to decline in the mid-1970s.

Laura Branigan "Self Control"

Self Control is the third album by American singer Laura Branigan, released in 1984. Two songs from the album were US Top-20 hits, the title song (#4) and "The Lucky One" (#20). The album became Branigan's biggest commercial success, earning her a Platinum certification in the United States for over 1 million confirmed sales, and selling several million copies worldwide. Branigan also enjoyed huge success in some countries with the single "Ti amo" (her second Umberto Tozzi cover, after "Gloria"), which reached #5 in the Canadian singles chart, but most notably reaching #2 in Australia. The album was a huge success internationally, gaining several sales certifications.

A remastered and expanded edition of the album was released on April 25, 2013 by Gold Legion. Included are remixes of "The Lucky One" and "Satisfaction", as well as the extended version of "Self Control".