Song:Money
Album:The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd started out as a standard psychedelic band and in the 70s became the most popular progressive rock band ever. Money was their first US hit single and helped them reach a much larger audience. Roger Waters and Nick Mason met in 1963 while studying architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. They formed the band Sigma 6 with Richard Wright and others. Then they met Syd Barrett. He came up with the name Pink Floyd from blues singers Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. They played gigs in London and eventually attracted record companies. They signed with EMI in 1966. For the first couple of years, Barrett was Pink Floyd's main songwriter. The problem was his LSD usage caused increasingly erratic behaviour and he was fired in early 1968. David Gilmour had already joined Pink Floyd. The band's music took a more progressive turn at that point. Pink Floyd was doing well but needed a breakthrough especially in the US. Albums like Atom Heart Mother and Meddle didn't do that. They decided to record a concept album based on things that make people mad. Waters wrote most of the lyrics. The Dark Side Of The Moon was well received but Capitol Records went the extra mile in the US and got Money significant radio play. It reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. That propelled the album to a much bigger audience and it is one of the best selling albums of all time. It remained on the Billboard Hot 200 for 741 weeks. It set up Pink Floyd for long term success especially since The Dark Side Of The Moon was their last album for Capitol. They moved to Columbia for the 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The band's success continued with that album and the 1979 album The Wall. Normally I would recommend a comp but The Dark Side Of The Moon was a concept album and the songs should be heard as a unit. Syd Barrett died in 2006 and Richard Wright died in 2008. But Gilmour, Waters and Mason are still around and perform as Pink Floyd when they aren't busy with other projects. Here's the video for Money by Pink Floyd.
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