Eric Woolfson R.I.P.

[Reza]

Eric Woolfson

Alan Parsons Project co-founder

Eric Woolfson, 64, who co-founded the Alan Parsons Project, the British progressive rock group that had a string of hits but never toured, died Wednesday of cancer, according to his website .

The Alan Parsons Project was known for such hits as "Eye in the Sky," "Don't Answer Me" and " Time ." Parsons and Woolfson, who sang lead vocals and wrote many of their songs, were the group's only permanent members.

Woolfson, born March 18, 1945, in Glasgow, Scotland, was a songwriter when he met Parsons, who had worked at the Beatles' Abbey Road studios and engineered Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album. Woolfson became Parsons' manager, and also managed Carl Douglas, whose " Kung Fu Fighting " became a No. 1 hit. Then Woolfson and Parsons turned to making records together. "Alan and I looked to the film industry and saw that directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had become the real stars of their movies," Woolfson told the Chicago Tribune in 1986. "We thought, 'Oh, records are going to go that way too.' It was logical because record producers are the musical equivalent of those guys."

Their debut album in 1976, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," was a concept album based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Their second album, 1977's "I Robot," was a hit but wasn't followed up with a tour. "We never really saw the need to publicize ourselves," Woolfson said.

After the Alan Parsons Project disbanded in the 1990s after 10 concept albums, Woolfson worked as a producer and composer of musicals , including "Edgar Allan Poe," which is playing in Berlin.