| The Turn of a Friendly Card | |
| Type: | Studio album |
| Artist: | the Alan Parsons Project |
| Cover: | The Alan Parsons Project - The Turn of a Friendly Card.jpg |
| Released: | 7 November 1980[1] |
| Recorded: | 1979–1980 |
| Studio: | Acousti Studio, Paris, France |
| Genre: | Art rock, progressive rock |
| Length: | 40:25 |
| Label: | Arista |
| Producer: | Alan Parsons |
| Prev Title: | Eve |
| Prev Year: | 1979 |
| Next Title: | Eye in the Sky |
| Next Year: | 1982 |
The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tracks. The Turn of a Friendly Card spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. An edited version of the title piece combining the opening and ending parts of the suite was also released as a single along with an official video.
As with the band's previous albums, The Turn of a Friendly Card is a concept album with its theme focused on the gambling industry and the fate of gamblers, with more than one reference to Las Vegas (e.g. "there's a sign in the desert that lies to west" from the title piece). Musically, the album is more melodic and accessible than the band's previous work. Up to this album, all Alan Parsons Project albums had been packaged in gatefold sleeves. Increasing budgetary constraints of record companies made The Turn of a Friendly Card the beginning of all subsequently released Alan Parsons Project albums to be single-sleeve packaged.[2] The album was recorded in a record short time of two weeks in Paris. Usually the Alan Parsons Project would take many months to record an album.[3]
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
Though numbered as a single work, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" is split into five tracks on most compact disc and all digital and streaming releases.
The Turn of a Friendly Card was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
In 2015, a "deluxe anniversary edition" was released on double CD. This featured a new remaster of the album, the bonus tracks of the 2008 edition on disc 1 and an additional disc including excerpts from Eric Woolfson's songwriting demos, rough mixes and the three single edits. On this new remaster, Parsons corrected a persisting speed mistake which was present in all earlier CD editions, from the very first (1987) up to the 2008 remaster, caused by the original master tape running slow during the CD mastering process and thus altering the pitch of the entire recording.[6]
"Eric's Songwriting Demos"
"Extra Bonus Tracks"
"Single Edits"
In 2023, a four-disc box set was released featuring the material from the 2-CD plus five additional songwriting diaries of unused songs("La La La Lah", "Next Year", "Someone Else", "Taking It All Away" and "To Those Of You Out There"), two more studio bonus tracks ("The Gold Bug - Chris Rainbow Backing Vocals" and "The Gold Bug - Clavinet With No Delay") and a Blu-Ray disc including a new 5.1 surround mix of the album plus four promo videos.[7] [8] The Blu-Ray was also made available separately.[9]
Produced and engineered by Alan Parsons
Executive producer: Eric Woolfson
Mastering consultant: Chris Blair
Sleeve concept: Lol Creme and Kevin Godley
"The Gold Bug", which references the same-titled short story by Edgar Allan Poe, includes a whistling part by Parsons (in the style of Ennio Morricone's early themes for Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films, such as A Fistful of Dollars) and wordless vocals by Rainbow, while the main theme is played on an alto saxophone. The saxophone player, originally credited as Mel Collins, is instead credited on the liner notes for the remastered edition as "A session player in Paris whose name escapes us"; this refers to the fact that the saxophone part is a composite of several separate takes.[10] Similarly, the accordion part on "Nothing Left to Lose" is credited in the liner notes to "An unidentified Parisian session player". Also on "The Gold Bug", the newer liner notes credit a "Harmonized Rotating Triangle" to drummer Stuart Elliott. This refers to the phasing sound effects heard throughout the rhythm-free introduction to the piece.
| Chart (1980–1981) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia Albums (Kent Music Report)[11] | 24 |
| Spanish Albums (AFE)[12] | 15 |
| Chart (1981) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[13] | 5 | |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] | 8 | |
| US Billboard 200[15] | 11 |
The album's title track was covered by German funeral doom metal band Ahab for their album The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" in 2015.