The Dark Side of the Moon

"Dark Side of the Moon" redirects here. For the side of the Moon, see Far side of the Moon. For other uses, see Dark Side of the Moon (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with The Dark Side of the Moo.

The Dark Side of the Moon
A prism refracting white light into a rainbow on a black background
Studio album by
Pink Floyd
Released1 March 1973 (1973-03-01)
Recorded31 May 1972 – 9 February 1973[1]
StudioEMI, London
Genre
Length42:50
Label
ProducerPink Floyd
Pink Floyd chronology
Obscured by Clouds
(1972) 		The Dark Side of the Moon
(1973) 		Wish You Were Here
(1975)
Singles from The Dark Side of the Moon
  1. "Money"
    Released: 7 May 1973
  2. "Us and Them"
    Released: 4 February 1974

The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973, by Harvest Records in the UK and Capitol Records in the US. Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of the former band member Syd Barrett, who had departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London.

The record builds on ideas explored in Pink Floyd's earlier recordings and performances, while omitting the extended instrumentals that characterised the band's earlier work. The group employed multitrack recording, tape loops, and analogue synthesisers, including experimentation with the EMS VCS 3 and a Synthi A. The engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many of the sonic aspects of the recording, and for the recruitment of the session singer Clare Torry, who appears on "The Great Gig in the Sky".

The Dark Side of the Moon explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness. Snippets from interviews with the band's road crew and others are featured alongside philosophical quotations. The sleeve, which depicts a prismatic spectrum, was designed by Storm Thorgerson in response to the keyboardist Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design which would represent the band's lighting and the album's themes. The album was promoted with two singles: "Money" and "Us and Them".

The Dark Side of the Moon is among the most critically acclaimed albums and often features in professional listings of the greatest of all time. It brought Pink Floyd international fame, wealth and plaudits to all four band members. A blockbuster release of the album era, it also propelled record sales throughout the music industry during the 1970s. The Dark Side of the Moon is certified 14x platinum in the United Kingdom, and topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, where it has charted for 990 weeks. By 2013, The Dark Side of the Moon had sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the band's best-selling release, the best-selling album of the 1970s, and the fourth-best-selling album in history.[3] In 2012, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[4]

  1. ^ Guesdon, Jean-Michel (2017). Pink Floyd All The Songs. Running Press. ISBN 978-0-316-43923-7.
  2. ^ Smirke, Richard. "Pink Floyd, 'The Dark Side of the Moon' At 40: Classic Track-By-Track Review". Billboard. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BB-20130316 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Grammy Hall of Fame Award". Recording Academy Grammy Awards. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2023.