Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky

If it sounds like "Eye In The Sky" starts abruptly, it's because the LP version tracks from the previous selection, a short instrumental called "Sirius".

The medley of "Sirius" and "Eye In The Sky" turns up on Sandstone's Reeling In The Years Vol. 4 (1991). It sounds quite nice here, with a very long tail to the fade and some pleasing tape hiss on the fade.

The other LP versions I have on CD start at the opening hi-hat, with one eighth-note guitar strum that hits at the same time as the hi-hat.

The first place the LP version appeared on CD was Arista's Perfect 10 (1984). The levels are a little low, but the sounds is quite nice here. I found a few discs that use the same analog transfer as Perfect 10:

• Cema's Greatest Hits Of The 80's Vol. 1 Turbo Mania (1994; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk Vol. 17 Heart To Heart (1997; digitally exactly 1.2 dB louder)
• Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol. 7 (1993; adds a little compression, and cuts off a tiny bit of the opening hit-hat - avoid)
• Swaitek's 50-CD promo The A List Disc 12 (1994)

The LP version on Madacy's Rock On 1982 Vol. 2 (2005) starts about half a beat early and clips severely - avoid.

The 45 version appeared first on MCA/Silver Eagle's 3-CD Shades Of Love (1989), which sounded fine but used a higher-generation source tape than...

...the 45 version on Rhino's Billboard Top Hits 1982 (1992), which uses very low-generation source tapes and sounds excellent. There are two CD that are digital clones of Billboard:

• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 5 1982 (1994; different EQ)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 4 More Than A Feeling (2006; different EQ)

Finally, two CDs from 1994 that fade the 45 version a few seconds early - avoid both:

• JCI's Eighteen Rock Classics (1994)
• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Lost In Love (1994)

My recommendations: For the 45 version, use Billboard Top Hits 1982 (1992).

For the LP version, use Arista's Perfect 10 (1984), or if you can't get that one, Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk Vol. 17 Heart To Heart (1997).

For the medley with "Sirius", use Sandstone's Reeling In The Years Vol. 4 (1991).

(I don't have the 1987 Greatest Hits, so I can't comment on that disc.)

Edited by crapfromthepast

Actually, even before the Chicago Bulls adopted The Alan Parsons
Project's "Sirius" as their entrance theme, World Wrestling
Federation/Entertainment fans will recall popular wrestling
performer Ricky Steamboat using the song as his ring entrance
music back in the mid-'80s. Even though Steamboat was never
exactly a household name in American pop culture, millions of
viewers heard "Sirius" regularly play for him during WWF
broadcasts at the height of the '80s wrestling explosion that
featured colorful iconic personalities like Hulk Hogan, Andre the
Giant, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Randy "The Macho Man" Savage, Jake
"The Snake" Roberts, etc. (Yes, I was once a huge wrestling fan!)

By the way, I've always liked how smoothly "Sirius" transitions into
"Eye in the Sky".