“Arnold Layne” by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd introduced themselves to the singles racks on 10 March 1967 with "Arnold Layne", a Syd Barrett song about the strangest of hobbies: its title character pinches women's underwear off washing lines. Roger Waters later said Arnold was drawn from life, since both his mother and Barrett's took in lodgers from a girls' college nearby, which kept the lines full and the real Arnold busy.

They cut it in January at Sound Techniques in Chelsea, where they had already recorded for Tonite Let's All Make Love in London, with Joe Boyd producing and John Wood engineering. Barrett sings lead and plays guitar, Richard Wright colors it with Farfisa and backing vocals, Waters holds the bass and Nick Mason the drums. The flip, "Candy and a Currant Bun", was another Barrett song from the same sessions, first called "Let's Roll Another One".

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