What year did Pink Floyd release their "Dark Side of The Moon" album?

The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released in March 1973. The album built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows. It lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterized their work following the departure in 1968 of founding member, principal composer and lyricist Syd Barrett. The Dark Side of the Moon's themes include conflict, greed, the passage of time, and mental illness, the latter partly inspired by Barrett's deteriorating mental state.

The group used some of the most advanced recording techniques of the time, including multitrack recording and tape loops. Analogue synthesizers were given prominence in several tracks, and engineer Alan Parsons was directly responsible for some of the most notable sonic aspects of the album as well as the recruitment of performer Clare Torry.

The album's iconic sleeve, features a prism that represents the band's stage lighting, the record's lyrical themes, and keyboardist Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design.

The Dark Side of the Moon was an immediate success, topping the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart for one week. It subsequently remained in the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988. An estimated 50 million albums were sold and it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time.

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29 Comments

Coral Harvey

Lovely record album and brings back many memories. Together with Mike Oldfield tubular bells which was released about the same time.

Ian Paul Jenkins

Got to be one of the greatest albums ever .

filmnut

In 1973 I was in Garmiche Germany. Not only was “Dark Side of the Moon” one of our collectively our favorite album, but not surprisingly, we played it all of the time. In 1974 Pink Floyd played live in concert at the Olympiahalle in Munich. They had a huge quadrophonic PA that allowed them to swirl the sound around the audience. A song like “Rabbit Run” was given an extra effect.

Chris Braid

On my third copy. One vinyl and one CD worn out!

Sue Fairweather

got it

Lynne Zeman

Great music!

Alan Straff

Bought it on cassette format, haven't played it in donkeys years but still have it.

John Ryan

Remember buying it in 1973 & still have it in my collection.

Patrick Kelly

I co-oped as an undergrad Engineering student at Capitol Records in 1972-1973 when Dark Side of the Moon was initially pressed! I still have several “test” pressings that were 100% pure virgin PVC, which meant the recordings did not have any of the tell-tale pops and cracks characteristic of normal pressings!