Pink Floyd:
 
David Gilmour (vocals, guitar, VCS3 synthesizer)
Roger Waters (vocals, bass, VCS3 synthesizer, sound effects)
Richard Wright (keyboards, VCS3 synthesizer, background vocals)
Nick Mason (drums, percussion, sound effects)

Additional personnel:

Clare Torry (vocals)
Dick Parry (saxophone)
Doris Troy, Leslie Duncan, Liza Strike, Barry St. John (background vocals)


Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London between June 1972 & January 1973.

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON was a benchmark record.
 
It turned the musical world on its ear with a hitherto unseen combination of sounds, and changed things considerably for Pink Floyd.
 
For this project, Pink Floyd resurrected older and unfinished numbers, some of which came from the multitude of soundtracks the band members had previously worked on.
 
The film "Zabriskie Point," a study of American materialism from a foreigner's perspective, provided "Us And Them" (originally titled "The Violence Sequence"). 

Waters rewrote "Breathe" after its appearance on his and avant-garde composer Ron Geesin's score for "The Body," a surreal medical documentary.

Floyd and their long-time engineer, Alan Parsons, used a multitude of sound effects--from stereophonically-projected footsteps and planes flying overhead ("On The Run") to a roomful of ringing clocks ("Time"). 

Further adding to the record's mystique, barely audible spoken passages were sprinkled throughout--a result of hours interviewing random Abbey Road occupants about their views on insanity, violence and death. 

Floyd must have struck a nerve; DARK SIDE OF THE MOON remained on Billboard's albums chart for an astounding fourteen years. 


It made Pink Floyd a household name, elevating them to the level of the Rolling Stones and The Who in the rock pantheon.


Editorial reviews:
 
...The sound is lush and multi-layered while remaining clear and well-structured....a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement....the excellence of a superb performance...Q Magazine (10/94, p.137) - 4 Stars - Excellent New Musical Express (3/20/93, p.33) - 8 - Excellent - ...although everything your punk rock elder brother said was undeniably true, it doesn't take a great mental leap to achieve the mind-set of the pot-smoking philosophy student and pronounce this album a super-sensory classic...Uncut (5/03, p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 - ...The subdued, darkly muttering, sombrely somnolent music of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON startles....An achievement of considerable merit...
Rolling Stone (05/24/1973)