The Book Shelf: Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on This Day in History

Friday, April 28, 2023

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on This Day in History

This day in history: Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon goes #1 on the US charts on this day in 1973. It stays on the charts for 741 weeks (over 14 years). ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ was the best selling album in the world for a while (it is still third best seller ever)...one in 12 people have been said to own a copy.

Did you know: The names Pink and Floyd came from two of Syd Barrett’s favorite Carolina bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Oddly, Pink Floyd are not really a blues band...and you could argue that they are not really a rock band either...but they were a great band. Dark Side of the Moon is said to sync perfectly with The Wizard of Oz and led to conspiracy theories that the band had written it with that purpose in mind. Despite their enormous record-breaking chart success with The Dark Side of the Moon, they've only topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart ONCE, with "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. II," hitting #1 in 1979.