Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Alan Parsons Project album)
| Tales of Mystery and Imagination | ||||
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| Studio album by The Alan Parsons Project | ||||
| Released | 1 May 1976 | |||
| Recorded | July 1975 – January 1976 | |||
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| Length | 42:38 | |||
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| Producer | Alan Parsons | |||
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| Singles from Tales of Mystery and Imagination | ||||
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | (mixed) |
Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the debut studio album by the British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released on 1 May 1976 by 20th Century Fox Records in the United States and on 1 June 1976 by Charisma Records internationally. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name, Tales of Mystery & Imagination, first published in 1908 and reprinted many times since.
Musicians featured on the album include vocalists Arthur Brown of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown on "The Tell Tale Heart", John Miles on "The Cask of Amontillado" and "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", and Terry Sylvester of The Hollies on "To One In Paradise". The complete line-up of bands Ambrosia and Pilot play on the record, along with keyboardist Francis Monkman of Curved Air and Sky. Tales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, and the song "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" peaked at No. 37 on the Pop Singles chart.
"The Raven" features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder. According to the album's liner notes, "The Raven" was the first rock song to feature a digital vocoder. The prelude section of "The Fall of the House of Usher", although uncredited, is inspired by the opera fragment "La chute de la maison Usher" by Claude Debussy which was composed between 1908 and 1917. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is an instrumental suite which runs 16 minutes plus and takes up most of Side 2 of the recording.
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