The Raven (song)

"The Raven" is a 1975 song by the Alan Parsons Project from their album Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and first song of the band. The song is based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name; the song was written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, and was originally recorded in April 1975, at Mama Jo's Studio, North Hollywood, Los Angeles and Abbey Road Studios, London.^[1]

It was one of the first rock songs to use a vocoder, developed by EMI, to distort vocals. It is also one of the few songs by the band featuring the vocals of Alan Parsons, who sings the first verse through the EMI vocoder. Actor Leonard Whiting performs the lead vocals for the remainder of the song, with Eric Woolfson and a choir as backing vocals.

The single appeared on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart peaking at #80 in October 1976.

The 1987 reissued version of the song contains a guitar solo near the end, before the "Quoth the Raven"/"Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore, never!" refrains and a few licks between the lyrics.

In 2004, the choral band Gregorian made a cover of the song for their album The Dark Side.

Personnel

Original (1976)

• Burleigh Drummond, Stuart Tosh — drums
• Bob Howes and the English Chorale — choir vocals
• Christopher North — keyboards
• David Pack — guitars
• Alan Parsons — opening lead vocals (using EMI vocoder)
• Andrew Powell — conducted and arranged orchestra
• Joe Puerta — bass guitar
• Leonard Whiting — lead vocals
• Eric Woolfson — backing vocals, keyboards

Reissue (1987)

• Ian Bairnson — lead guitar solo

References