77 Fun Facts About The Dark Side of the Moon

Which US institution's registry preserves The Dark Side of the Moon?

The Library of Congress added the album to its National Recording Registry four decades after its release in March 1973, which came more than a year after the band began playing the suite live.

The Dark Side of the Moon's prism sleeve came from which design studio, also behind 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.

Which Pink Floyd member sings the lead vocal on 'Money', the band's first US hit?

David Gilmour sings 'Money', which its bassist wrote; he double-tracked the vocal and scats along with his guitar in the outro, and the single reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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 Dark Side of the Moon?

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 recorded The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road Studios?

Alan Parsons, then an EMI staff engineer at Abbey Road, turned down the chance to work on the band's next album and launched the Alan Parsons Project instead.

On which earlier Pink Floyd album had The Dark Side of the Moon's engineer worked as an assistant?

Atom Heart Mother, released in 1970, was the engineer's first job with the band, as a junior on the Abbey Road staff; by 1972 EMI had put him in charge of these sessions.

Which 1995 Pink Floyd live album includes a complete concert performance of The Dark Side of the Moon?

Pulse captures the band's 1994 tour for The Division Bell, when they revived the whole album on stage some two decades after first touring it.

By 2013 The Dark Side of the Moon had sold roughly how many copies worldwide?

45 million was the estimate at the album's 40th anniversary in 2013, a scale that surprised the band: they thought it their best work yet but had no idea it would grow so big.

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

Nick Mason is credited alone for 'Speak to Me'; he says he assembled the collage himself, while two bandmates later called the credit a gift of publishing income.

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

'Us and Them' began as a piano piece written in 1969 for Zabriskie Point; the director passed on it, and it returned here with new lyrics about war as the album's longest track.

In Roger Waters's telling, Antonioni rejected 'The Violent Sequence' as too sad because it reminded him of what?

Church is what it made Antonioni think of, as Waters tells it: beautiful but too sad. The piece then sat unused for about three years until 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 racing sequence of 'On the Run' was built by entering eight notes into which instrument?

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 tick came from the synth.

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

'The Travel Sequence' was a guitar-led jam the band played all through 1972; in the studio they scrapped it for a throbbing electronic pattern.

The designers of The Dark Side of the Moon sleeve also considered a cover featuring which Marvel Comics hero?

The Silver Surfer was among the designers' ideas: they liked the image of a silver man on a silver surfboard crossing the universe, but say they would never have got permission to use him.

Where did the album's engineer record the ticking and chiming heard at the start of 'Time'?

An antique clock shop supplied the sounds: the engineer had taped each clock there one at a time for a quadraphonic demonstration, and the band liked the result enough to open 'Time' with it.

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

Rototoms, shell-less drums tuned by turning the head, carry the passage, and the tick-tock beneath them is no clock: it is the bassist picking muted strings.

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

Breathe returns for about a minute at the end of 'Time'; the lyricist said the two songs make the same plea, to be here now and make the most of it.

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

Gilmour and Wright split the vocal, Gilmour on the verses and Wright on the gentler bridges; the lyricist wrote the words after realising, at about 28, that he was no longer preparing for life but in the middle of it.

Which track on the album was itself first titled 'The Dark Side of the Moon'?

Brain Damage carried the name first: begun around the Meddle sessions, it lent its title to the whole album, and its chorus still ends 'I'll see you on the dark side of the moon'.

The Dark Side of the Moon's themes of madness were inspired in part by the decline of which musician?

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', which he wrote and went on singing on his solo tours; when the band toured without him in 1994, the guitarist took the vocal.

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 supplied the closing words 'There is no dark side of the moon really'; his next thought, that only the sun makes it look alight, was left off.

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.

Before their 1972 tour, Pink Floyd wrote and rehearsed the new suite in a London warehouse owned by which group?

The Rolling Stones owned the Bermondsey warehouse where the band wrote while rehearsing after Christmas 1971; within weeks the still unfinished suite was being played to paying audiences.

Pink Floyd's road manager, whose manic laugh is heard on Dark Side, was the father of which Hollywood actress?

Naomi Watts is the daughter of Peter Watts, the road manager whose laugh runs through the album; he died in 1976, when she was seven, and the family later left Britain for Australia.

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

Supervise the final mix: Chris Thomas came in as a fresh pair of ears; the band were said to be split over how dry it should sound, though he later recalled no disagreement at all.

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 billing for four nights at the Rainbow in February 1972; to the band's dismay, a bootleg of the work in progress reportedly sold in six figures.

The Dark Side of the Moon press launch on 27 February 1973, which most of Pink Floyd 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 most of Pink Floyd stay away from the album's 1973 press launch?

The playback was stereo, not quad, and over a poor PA at that; accounts differ on whether the quad mix or the venue's system was not ready, and only the keyboardist turned up.

Which colour is missing from the six-band spectrum on the Dark Side of the Moon cover?

Indigo is the colour left out, so the beam leaving the prism has six bands; at the bassist's suggestion it runs on through the gatefold, and a second prism on the back gathers it up again.

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

Pyramids featured on both stickers, echoing one of the posters: an infrared photograph of the Giza pyramids that the sleeve designers shot at night.

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

A Black Magic chocolate box was the keyboardist's model for something 'smarter, neater, more classy'; the label had been baffled by earlier sleeves from the same designers, which carried no lettering at all.

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

A physics textbook supplied the image of a prism splitting white light, which George Hardie then drew; it suited a band renowned for the lighting at its concerts.

For how long did The Dark Side of the Moon hold number one on the US album chart?

One week was all it managed at the top before Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii took over; the guitarist had bet the band's manager that it would not even reach the US top ten.

In the UK, The Dark Side of the Moon held what 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 Pink Floyd's Dark Side profits were invested in which 1975 film?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was paid for partly by rock acts, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin among them, because no studio would back it; with top UK tax rates near 90%, it also made a handy write-off.

Fans claim The Dark Side of the Moon 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 call it coincidence, and the album's engineer said he tried it himself and was very disappointed.

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

Ticket to Ride, in an orchestral cover 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 closing track of The Dark Side of the Moon was played after the cauldron was lit at which event's opening ceremony?

2012 London Olympics organisers set the track to the fireworks that followed the lighting of the cauldron, while the stadium screens replayed famous Olympic victories.

Waters's 2023 solo re-recording of The Dark Side of the Moon adds which word to its title?

Redux is the added word: The Dark Side of the Moon Redux came out in October 2023, made without his old bandmates, with the guitar solos gone and new spoken passages in their place.

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

His wife's pottery studio held the big mixing bowl he threw coins into; the taped clinks were then cut up and spliced by hand into the loop that opens 'Money'.

Where did Waters record his demo tracks for The Dark Side of the Moon?

A garden shed at his Islington home held the small studio where the bassist taped the demos, sound effects and all, before the band worked the songs up together on the road.

The album's Grammy nomination was in which category?

Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical was the nomination, and it named the engineer rather than the band; the award itself went to Stevie Wonder's Innervisions.

At the first Brit Awards in 1977, the album lost best British album to which Beatles record?

Sgt. Pepper won: the 1977 ceremony marked the Queen's Silver Jubilee by judging 25 years of British music, so a 1973 album found itself up against one from 1967.

Which football club did Waters sometimes break off from the sessions to watch?

Arsenal are the bassist's club, and the story goes that sessions stopped for their matches; the guitarist later called the tale of constant interruptions a myth, saying that on a roll the band got on with it.

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

Radio City Music Hall staged the show on 17 March: the band rose into view on one of its stage elevators, wreathed in dry ice, and Andy Warhol was in the audience.

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 set the template for the collective, who went on to give other classic albums the reggae treatment, among them Michael Jackson's Thriller as Thrillah.

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 choral cover of the album's closing track soundtracked the September 2020 first trailer for which film?

Dune's first trailer used the cover, for which Hans Zimmer directed a 32-voice choir over FaceTime during lockdown, the singers recording in groups of four while he listened from home.

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'.

Which jam band played The Dark Side of the Moon in full at a 1998 show in Utah?

Phish sprang the album on a Utah crowd in the second set of their 2 November 1998 show; they reportedly picked it that day, partly over slow ticket sales.

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

A model aeroplane flew the length of the hall and appeared to explode as the track ended; the 1987 tour swapped it for a flying 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.

Waters said the title 'Any Colour You Like' echoed 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 Dark Side of the Moon?

One in fourteen Americans under 50 was estimated in 2007 to own or have owned a copy, though no earlier album by the band had even reached the US top 40.

Waters rejoined Pink Floyd for one night to play Dark Side songs at which London concert?

Live 8 reunited the four for a short set that opened with songs from the album; the guitarist then pledged his share of the sales surge that followed to charity.

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

James Guthrie, the band's long-time engineer, built the 5.1 mix from the original tapes; the band chose a fresh mix over the quadraphonic one their original engineer had made in 1973.

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

A custom stained-glass window was built to the proportions of the original prism design; the designers wanted a cover that was the same but different, just as the surround mix was the same music made new.

What is unusual about the two clear LPs in Pink Floyd's 2024 collector's 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 Pink Floyd first play the Dark Side material to an audience, on 20 January 1972?

The Dome, Brighton hosted the first attempt on 20 January 1972; technical trouble stopped the show partway through 'Money', and the suite was first played complete 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, among them verses from Ephesians and the Lord's Prayer, ran on tape over the organ in early 1972, mixed with clips of the broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge.

Pink Floyd's keyboardist said a chord he used on The Dark Side of the Moon came from which Miles Davis album?

Kind of Blue is where he found it: by his own account, he gave the album's opening song a chord he had heard on that jazz record and simply loved.

Which playwright wrote Darkside, a 2013 BBC radio drama built around the album?

Tom Stoppard wrote Darkside for the album's 40th anniversary, running the whole record, minus its lyrics, under a philosophical comedy and taking his emotional cues from the music.

Assistant engineer Peter James helped make the album's third track by doing what?

Running around the studio, panting, was his contribution: the engineer taped his footsteps for 'On the Run' while experimenting after hours, and the band loved it when they heard it.

What did guests at the boycotted 1973 Dark Side press launch find in place of Pink Floyd?

Life-sized cardboard cut-outs of the band stood in at the launch; only the keyboardist came in person, and the album was played over a PA too poor to do it justice.

Which word in 'Money' was meant to be edited out of the single sent to US radio stations?

Bullshit was meant to be cut for radio, but promo copies went out with the word intact, so the label rushed stations a corrected pressing.

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; the label soon had its return, as the first album under the deal topped the US chart.

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

OK Computer is often set beside it as a record about people struggling to function in the modern world, though Radiohead themselves rejected the progressive-rock tag.