Dark Side Of The Moon by British four-piece Pink Floyd was released in March 1973 and spent almost 14 years on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It has gone on to sell almost 50 million copies, making it one of the most commercially successful albums ever.

Pink Floyd was formed in 1965 by three architecture students: bass player Roger Waters, keyboard player Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason. They were soon joined by guitarist and songwriter Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett who gave them the name The Pink Floyd Sound. They played a lot on the London underground scene and were signed to a record deal with EMI, releasing two singles followed by the psychedelic album Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn in 1967.

Syd Barrett used a lot of mind altering drugs—marijuana and LSD—and became very erratic, sometimes standing on stage and not playing his guitar at all. Frustrated, the other band members decided to add their friend Dave Gilmour as guitarist. Shortly after, they dropped Syd from the band altogether. The story goes that on the way to a gig one night they all just decided not to pick him up.

The idea for their eighth album Dark Side Of The Moon came from Roger Waters at a band meeting in late 1971. He presented the idea of a concept album featuring distinct songs, all about the things that could drive a person to insanity. Originally titled ‘Eclipse’ the piece was rehearsed in December 1971 and January 1972 then performed on tour for six months before recording commenced in June 1972.

The recording took place over two months at Abbey Road studios using a newly installed 16 track tape recorder. This cutting-edge technology gave the band much greater control over their mature sound. It wasn't just the sonic quality that caught the fans' attention, the lyrics spoke of the band’s concerns about the world, which we assume were the audience’s concerns as well.

Several of the songs became very well known, including ‘Money’, a song about the evils of too much money, which ironically, due to its chart success, made the individual members of Pink Floyd very wealthy. The band used some of their new found wealth to finance the movie Monty Python And The Holy Grail.

Other highlights were ‘Us And Them’, with its distinctive ethereal vocals, and the instrumental ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’, which featured a wordless female vocal. Interconnecting throughout the album were various sound effects and the recorded voices of the band's road crew and personnel from around the studios.

The album catapulted Pink Floyd into being one of the biggest acts in America. They routinely played the largest arenas, with complex live shows featuring the best sound, the biggest light show and specially made movies to accompany particular songs.

Why was Dark Side Of The Moon so successful? Pink Floyd were a major ‘alternative’ group with a very different album, which had to be enjoyed in full. It’s perhaps no accident that the tempo, and the unique sound of the record, made it perfect to listen to when stoned—and in the seventies that’s how a lot of their audience were.