79 Fun Facts About The Dark Side of the Moon

In what year was The Dark Side of the Moon released?

The album was released in March 1973, first in the US on 1 March, more than a year after the band first played the whole suite live in January 1972.

The prism sleeve was designed by which design studio, which had also done the band's cow and ear covers?

Hipgnosis, the studio of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, presented the band several designs; all four members chose the prism, which George Hardie drew.

'Money', the band's first US hit, peaked at which position on the Billboard Hot 100?

'Money' peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's first US hit single; Cash Box placed it at number 10, and the single edit cut most of the solos.

Most of 'Money' is written in which unusual time signature?

'Money' is mostly in 7/4, an unusual meter for a rock hit; the band shifts to a straight 4/4 for the guitar solo before returning to 7/4 at the end.

Which saxophonist, an old friend of David Gilmour, was booked to play on the album?

Dick Parry, a Cambridge friend of the band's guitarist, played the saxophone solos on 'Money' and returned to play on Wish You Were Here.

Which session singer improvised the wordless vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'?

Clare Torry, a session singer suggested by the engineer, recorded her wordless improvisation in a few takes on a Sunday and left believing the band disliked it.

How much was the 'Great Gig in the Sky' vocalist paid for her session in 1973?

The singer was paid £30, the flat Sunday session fee, and only learned she was on the record when she saw her name in the credits in a shop.

After a 2004 lawsuit, 'The Great Gig in the Sky' is credited jointly to the vocalist and which band member?

Richard Wright wrote the chord sequence on piano; after the vocalist's suit was settled, later pressings credit 'The Great Gig in the Sky' to Wright and the singer jointly.

Which EMI staff engineer engineered the album at Abbey Road Studios?

Alan Parsons, then an EMI staff engineer at Abbey Road, engineered the album and went on to form the Alan Parsons Project in 1975.

On which earlier Pink Floyd album had the album's engineer worked as an assistant?

Atom Heart Mother, released in 1970, was the engineer's first Pink Floyd credit, as an assistant; he had also assisted on the Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be.

The album's initial run on the Billboard 200 lasted how many nonconsecutive weeks, from 1973 to 1988?

It included one unbroken stretch of 593 weeks, and it went back on the chart in 2009 once catalogue titles were allowed again.

By 2013 the album had sold roughly how many copies worldwide?

An estimated 45 million copies had been sold worldwide by the album's 40th anniversary, which places it among the best-selling albums of all time.

Which band member received a rare solo writing credit for the opening sound collage 'Speak to Me'?

Nick Mason is credited alone for 'Speak to Me', the heartbeat-led collage that opens the album; the bassist later said the credit was a gift to give the drummer publishing income.

Which track grew out of 'The Violent Sequence', a piano piece written for the film Zabriskie Point?

Its 7:49 running time makes it the longest track on the album.

Antonioni rejected 'The Violent Sequence' as too sad because it made him think of what?

Church is what it made Antonioni think of: he told the band the piece was beautiful but too sad, and it was shelved for about three years before this album revived it.

Under what working title was 'The Great Gig in the Sky' performed live in early 1972?

'The Mortality Sequence' was the early organ instrumental with spoken-word tape over it; by the album sessions it had become a piano piece topped by a wordless vocal.

The pulsing sequence of 'On the Run' was built by entering eight notes into which synth?

The EMS Synthi AKS, a British suitcase synth with a built-in sequencer, played the eight-note loop sped up; even the hi-hat-like pulse came from the synth, with no second machine to sync.

Which guitar-and-keyboard jam filled the 'On the Run' slot in the band's early 1972 shows?

'The Travel Sequence' was the guitar-led live jam the band played in 1972 before 'On the Run' was written; its studio version stayed unreleased until the 2011 Immersion box set.

'On the Run' evokes the anxiety of travel, and in particular which fear of the band's keyboardist?

Flying was the keyboardist's particular fear; 'On the Run' plays on it with running footsteps, an airport announcement and a closing crash that suggests a plane coming down.

Where were the ticking and chiming clocks that open 'Time' recorded?

An antique clock shop supplied the ticking and chimes: the engineer had taped each clock there separately as a quadraphonic test weeks earlier, and the band put it on 'Time'.

Which drums dominate the two-minute passage after the clocks in 'Time'?

Rototoms, tunable shell-less drums, carry the two-minute passage after the clocks in 'Time', played by the drummer over a muted tick-tock on bass.

'Time' ends with a one-minute reprise of which earlier track?

'Time' closes with 'Breathe (Reprise)', a roughly one-minute return to the album's second track, with new lyrics about coming home cold and tired.

Which two members share the lead vocal on 'Time'?

Gilmour and Wright split the vocal: Gilmour sings the verses and Wright the softer bridge, his last lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album until 'Wearing the Inside Out' in 1994.

What did the band call 'Brain Damage' during live performances and recording sessions?

'Lunatic' was the band's name for 'Brain Damage' on stage and in the studio, after its opening line 'The lunatic is on the grass'.

The themes of madness on the album were inspired in part by the decline of which former member?

Syd Barrett, the band's original frontman, left in 1968 as his mental health collapsed; he famously turned up unrecognised at the 1975 Wish You Were Here sessions.

Who sings lead vocal on 'Brain Damage'?

Roger Waters sings lead on 'Brain Damage', the song he wrote about madness; Gilmour encouraged him despite his doubts about his own voice and sang it himself on the 1994 tour.

What was the job of Gerry O'Driscoll, whose spoken answers about dying and the moon appear on the album?

Doorman at Abbey Road Studios, Gerry O'Driscoll gave the closing line 'There is no dark side of the moon really, matter of fact it's all dark' and the 'I am not frightened of dying' lines.

Which famous couple's answers to Roger Waters's flashcard questions were cut for 'trying too hard to be funny'?

Paul and Linda McCartney, recording Wings' Red Rose Speedway at Abbey Road at the time, were interviewed but cut; the band felt their answers were performances rather than candid replies.

Which Wings guitarist contributed the spoken line about being really drunk at the time?

Henry McCullough, then Wings' lead guitarist, was interviewed while his band worked in the same studio complex; his 'I was really drunk at the time' answer appears on 'Money'.

The repeated manic laughter heard on the album was recorded by which member of the band's crew?

Road manager Peter Watts supplied the manic laughter heard on 'Speak to Me' and 'Brain Damage'; his daughter Naomi Watts later became a Hollywood star.

Chris Thomas, who had worked with George Martin, was hired at the end of the sessions to do what?

Supervise the final mix: that was Chris Thomas's brief, brought in as a fresh pair of ears to mediate between members who wanted a dry sound and those who wanted more echo.

Because the band Medicine Head had already used the title, the album was briefly renamed what?

Eclipse was the stand-in title after Medicine Head's 1972 album Dark Side of the Moon; when that record sold poorly the band reclaimed their original title.

What subtitle did the suite carry at its February 1972 press premiere at the Rainbow Theatre?

A Piece for Assorted Lunatics was the subtitle at the Rainbow Theatre run in February 1972; Melody Maker's reviewer wrote the sound effects left him wondering if he was in a bird-cage at London Zoo.

The album's press launch on 27 February 1973, which most of the band boycotted, was held where?

London Planetarium hosted the launch; the album was played over a poor sound system, and only the keyboardist attended while the other three stayed away.

Why did the band skip their own launch reception?

The quadraphonic mix was not finished in time, and the band refused to let a stereo playback stand in for it; the quad mix by the album's engineer came out later on LP.

The spectrum on the album cover has only six colours. Which one is missing?

The beam continues across the gatefold at Waters's suggestion, and the back cover shows a second prism recombining the light.

Besides two posters, the original sleeve contained two stickers themed on what?

Pyramids featured on both stickers, echoing the Giza theme of one poster, an infrared photograph of the pyramids taken at night by the sleeve designers.

Wright asked the designers for something classy and simple, like the artwork on what?

A Black Magic chocolate box was the keyboardist's benchmark for something smarter and classier, after EMI had been baffled by the wordless cow and ear sleeves.

Storm Thorgerson's prism idea came partly from a photograph he found in what kind of book?

A physics textbook photograph of light passing through a prism gave Thorgerson the idea, alongside Alex Steinweiss's cover for a New York Philharmonic recording of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

How long did the album hold the number one spot on the US album chart?

One week at number one was all it managed, on the Billboard chart of 28 April, though it then stayed on the chart for more than 14 years.

In the UK, the album held what unusual distinction as of 2017?

Biggest seller never to reach No. 1 was its UK distinction, having peaked at number two; the band had not released a UK single since 1968 and issued none from this album.

Some of the album's profits were invested in the production of which 1975 film?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was partly financed by the band's album profits, alongside money from Led Zeppelin and other rock acts, with Pink Floyd Music credited among the backers.

Fans claim the album synchronises with which 1939 film when the two are played together?

The Wizard of Oz pairing, nicknamed 'Dark Side of the Rainbow', spread in the 1990s; the band dismissed it as coincidence, the drummer joking that the album was really based on The Sound of Music.

Which Beatles song is faintly audible over the closing heartbeats on some Dark Side of the Moon pressings?

Ticket to Ride, in an orchestral Hollyridge Strings version, was playing in the studio background during one of the spoken interviews and bled faintly onto the tape under the final heartbeats.

In March 2004 the album's closing track was used to wake which Mars rover, in honour of a transit of Phobos?

Opportunity, the second of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, was woken with the track in March 2004; Delicate Sound of Thunder had earlier flown aboard Soyuz TM-7 in 1988.

The album's closing track was played after the cauldron was lit at the opening ceremony of which event?

2012 London Olympics organisers played the album's closing track over fireworks right after the cauldron was lit at the opening ceremony, before the show closed with 'Hey Jude'.

What was the title of Waters's 2023 solo re-recording of the album, minus guitar solos?

The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, released in October 2023, was recorded with his touring band and no other Pink Floyd members, with spoken passages reframing the songs from old age.

Waters recorded the coin sounds for the 'Money' effects loop by throwing coins into a mixing bowl where?

His wife's pottery studio, where the potter Judy Trim worked, was where the bassist taped coins dropped into a mixing bowl; the pieces were spliced by hand into the tape loop.

Where did Waters record the album's demo tracks?

A garden shed at his home was where the bassist cut the demos, including an acoustic run-through of 'Money' later released on the 2011 Immersion box.

The album's Grammy nomination was in which category?

Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical was the nomination, credited to the engineer rather than the band; the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Where did Rolling Stone rank the album on its 2020 500 Greatest Albums list?

55 was its place on Rolling Stone's 2020 revision of the 500 Greatest Albums, down from number 43 on both the 2003 and 2012 editions.

The Dark Side of the Moon is which number in Pink Floyd's sequence of studio albums?

Eighth in the band's studio run, because the soundtrack Obscured by Clouds, recorded in France during a break in these sessions, came out in June 1972 ahead of it.

Recording was interrupted in early 1972 so the band could score La Vallée for which French director?

Barbet Schroeder, who had used the band for More in 1969, hired them again for La Vallée; that score became the June 1972 album Obscured by Clouds.

Sessions were regularly interrupted so Waters could watch which football club play?

Arsenal are the bassist's lifelong club, and sessions paused for their matches; the engineer used the breaks to keep working on the tape effects.

In March 1973 the band played the album at a midnight show for 6,000 people at which New York venue?

Radio City Music Hall hosted the sold-out midnight performance on 17 March, during the band's spring US tour; they were back for a second American tour in June.

Which US label released the album, even as the band quietly negotiated to leave for Columbia?

Capitol Records, under new chairman Bhaskar Menon, pushed the album hard in America even though the band were already talking to Columbia, whom they joined for their next album.

Which band remade The Dark Side of the Moon track by track in 2009 with Stardeath and White Dwarfs and Henry Rollins?

The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs recorded the remake in 2009 with Henry Rollins narrating and Peaches singing 'The Great Gig in the Sky'.

Easy Star All-Stars' 2003 full reggae cover of the album was released under what title?

Dub Side of the Moon, Easy Star All-Stars' 2003 reggae remake, sold well enough for the collective to issue a remix companion, Dubber Side of the Moon, in 2010.

Which pop duo opened a track of their own called 'Money' with the tape loops from Pink Floyd's song?

Milli Vanilli opened their own track 'Money' with the cash-register and coin loops from Pink Floyd's song; the duo's career collapsed in the 1990 lip-syncing scandal.

A Hans Zimmer remix of Pink Floyd's 'Eclipse' soundtracked the September 2020 first trailer for which film?

Dune's first trailer, released in September 2020, ran over Hans Zimmer's choral arrangement of the album's closing track; Zimmer went on to score the film itself.

Which NBA team's announcers used 'On the Run' as the visiting team's theme in the 1990s?

Chicago Bulls home games in the 1990s introduced the visiting team over 'On the Run', while the Bulls themselves took the floor to the instrumental 'Sirius'.

The airport announcement in 'On the Run' calls a flight to Rome, Cairo and which other city?

The engineer reused the same sample decades later on a bonus track for the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination reissue.

At the end of 'On the Run' in 1970s shows, what flew the length of the arena and seemed to crash?

A model aeroplane slid down a wire over the crowd and exploded at the stage as the track ended; the 1987 tour swapped it for a bed, and the 1994 shows brought the plane back.

The 'Great Gig' singer missed her first call because she had tickets to see whom?

Chuck Berry was playing London that Saturday night and the singer already had a ticket, so her session was booked for the following day, a Sunday in January.

According to Waters, the title 'Any Colour You Like' came from the sales patter of whom?

Market traders selling china from a van, he said, would shout 'any colour you like' over crockery that was all blue; the phrase became the instrumental's title.

In 2007, what share of Americans under 50 were estimated to own a copy of the album?

One in fourteen Americans under 50 was estimated in 2007 to own or have owned a copy, decades after its release and long after it left the main Billboard chart in 1988.

The album's title alludes to which of the following, rather than astronomy?

Lunacy is the allusion: the lyricist described the record as being about the pressures that drive people mad, and 'Brain Damage' closes on the line 'I'll see you on the dark side of the moon'.

Which engineer created the new 5.1 surround mix for the 2003 30th-anniversary SACD?

James Guthrie, the band's long-time engineer and producer, built the 5.1 mix from the original multitracks for the 2003 SACD, which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.

The 30th-anniversary edition's cover is a photograph of what?

A custom stained-glass window, built for the shoot and photographed with light passing through it, replaced the flat graphic; Storm Thorgerson's team reworked the prism this way for the 2003 SACD.

What was unusual about the two clear-vinyl LPs in the 2024 reissue of the 50th-anniversary edition?

Only one side of each disc plays; the album is spread over two single-sided clear LPs whose blank faces carry UV-printed artwork, a 2024 collector's pressing of the 50th-anniversary remaster.

Where did the band first premiere the new material, on 20 January 1972?

The Dome, Brighton hosted the first attempt, after rehearsals in a Bermondsey warehouse owned by the Rolling Stones; the show broke down during 'Money' and the full suite was first completed the next night in Portsmouth.

Early 1972 versions of 'The Great Gig in the Sky' featured what instead of a vocal?

Readings from the Bible, taped and played over the keyboardist's organ chords, filled the slot in the early 1972 shows, along with recordings of broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge.

How many channels did the Studer A80 recorders used on the album offer?

16 tracks was the capacity of the Studer A80 machines at Abbey Road, up from the 8-track decks of earlier sessions, yet the band bounced parts to second-generation copies to free space.

Which TV comedy would the band stop recording to watch while the engineer kept working?

Monty Python's Flying Circus, whose third BBC series ran during the sessions, was a fixture: the band would break off to watch it on the studio television while the engineer worked on.

Assistant engineer Peter James contributed to 'On the Run' by doing what?

Running around the studio's echo chamber gave the footsteps heard in 'On the Run'; assistant engineer Peter James was recorded as he ran, and the album's heartbeat was a padded bass drum.

What did guests at the boycotted 1973 press launch find in place of the band?

Life-sized cardboard cut-outs of the four members stood in for them at the launch; only the keyboardist came, and the album was played over an inadequate sound system.

Which word was censored from the mono promo side of the 'Money' single sent to radio stations?

Bullshit was cut from the mono promo side by editing the line down to 'don't give me that do-goody-good bull', while the stereo side slipped out uncensored, so a corrected promo followed.

For roughly what advance did Pink Floyd sign to Columbia at the start of 1974?

$1 million was the reported advance when the band signed with Columbia for North America in 1974; Wish You Were Here was their first album on the new label there.

With which 1997 Radiohead album is The Dark Side of the Moon often compared?

OK Computer, Radiohead's 1997 album of alienation and technology, drew repeated critical comparisons to the Pink Floyd record for its themes of modern pressure and its suite-like ambition.