Pink Floyd: Roger Waters (bass instrument); David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright .

Personnel: David Gilmour (vocals, guitar); Richard Wright (vocals, keyboards); Roger Waters, Clare Torry (vocals); Dick Parry (saxophone); Nick Mason (percussion); Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, Barry St. John (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, Barry St. John, Dick Parry, Clare Torry.

Audio Mixers: Gus Skinas; James Guthrie.

Recording information: EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England (06/1972-01/1973).

Photographers: Jill Furmanovsky; Tony May.

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

By condensing the sonic explorations of Meddle to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with Dark Side of the Moon. The primary revelation of Dark Side of the Moon is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance. But what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music, which evolves from ponderous, neo-psychedelic art rock to jazz fusion and blues-rock before turning back to psychedelia. It's dense with detail, but leisurely paced, creating its own dark, haunting world. Pink Floyd may have better albums than Dark Side of the Moon, but no other record defines them quite as well as this one. The album was celebrating a total of 1,350 weeks on The Billboard 200 and Top Pop Catalog charts in Billboard magazine when Capitol Records released the 30th anniversary edition in 2003. The SACD version, as had previous digital remasterings, added space and definition to the elements of music, dialogue, and sound effects that made up the album, while the 5.1 remix expanded those improvements across multiple speakers. Original designer Storm Thorgerson contributed a new, subtly different album cover and a 20-page CD booklet that was a scrapbook of photographs and artwork associated with the album over the years. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine