Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd's ninth studio album, arrived on 12 September 1975 on Harvest in Britain, with Columbia putting it out in America a day later as the band's first record for the label. It was pieced together over many sessions through 1975 at EMI Studios in London, out of material the band had been working up on stage in Europe, with Roger Waters on bass, David Gilmour on guitar, Richard Wright on keyboards and Nick Mason on drums.

At its heart sits "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to Syd Barrett, the co-founder who had drifted out of the band seven years before as his mental health gave way. In a twist nobody could have scripted, Barrett turned up at the studio while they were recording. Around that long, aching centerpiece the album sulks and sneers: "Welcome to the Machine" hums with cold synthesizers, "Have a Cigar" takes a sour swipe at the music business with Roy Harper singing lead, and the title song is a dusty, lonesome ballad about absence. Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams add backing vocals to "Shine On". As on The Dark Side of the Moon, the studio effects and synths do half the talking.

It topped the charts in Britain and America, but plenty of critics were cool on it at first and found it a letdown next to what came before. Time was kinder: sales reached something like 13 million copies by 2004, and Wright, Mason and Gilmour have all named it their favourite Pink Floyd album, while Waters called it the band's most complete.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.