Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” Album
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon was released by Harvest Records on March 1, 1973 as the eighth studio album of the English rock band.
The two singles were primarily used to promote the album. Said singles are:
- “Us and Them”
- “Money”
David Gilmour actually had a bet with the band’s manager that the album would never reach the US Top 10 Albums chart. However, it shot straight to number one on said chart and stayed there for a whole week in 1973.
In 1993, the album was remastered and reissued for its 20th anniversary, peaking at number 4 in the UK.
The band almost named the album Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics). This was after they found out that Medicine Head had released their album titled Dark Side of the Moon in 1972. After the latter proved unsuccessful, Pink Floyd decided to stick with their initial plan.
The frenzied laughter heard on Brain Damage and Speak to Me belongs to the band’s manager at the time, Peter Watts.
The whole project was recorded at Abbey Road Studios between May 1972 and January 1973, in only two sessions. Recordings were often interrupted because the band wanted to watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus on TV.
The album was nearly leaked in 1972 by a fan who recorded a bootleg version.
The premiere of Dark Side of the Moon was held at the London Planetarium.
Accolades of “The Dark Side of the Moon”
The Dark Side of the Moon also reached number one in France and Belgium. It also performed as follows in the following countries:
- 2 in Austria
- 3 in Australia
- 5 in Holland
- 5 in Spain
The Guinness Book of Records has enlisted the album for staying on music charts for the longest period, specifically 591 consecutive weeks, totaling 11.4 years on the US Billboard 200 charts. The album has spent over 800 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts as of 2020.
In the UK, it has been certified 14x Platinum and is considered as one of the best-selling albums worldwide with more than 45 million records sold. The Library of Congress selected it to be preserved in the National Recording Registry in 2013.
The sound engineer, Alan Parson was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical. While working on the album, he was only paid a weekly wage of £35.
