The 10 Best Pink Floyd Songs of All Time

Some bands are so good that picking the top 10 best songs from their repertoire is incredibly difficult. Pink Floyd is certainly one of such bands. With songs to choose from legendary albums like The Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, it is unavoidable to leave out songs that deserve to rank in any top 10 list. Nevertheless, I gave it my best try! For this article, I’ve ranked the 10 best Pink Floyd songs of all time, based on personal preference and cultural importance.

10. Money

I start this list with “Money”. The song was released as the first single on what I consider to be Pink Floyd’s magnum opus: The Dark Side of the Moon. The song starts with ringing cash registers and clinking coins, followed by Roger Waters’ iconic bass riff. During David Gilmour’s guitar solo, the time signature of the song changes, giving “Money” the feel of a groovy jam session.

“Money” surely isn’t the last song from The Dark Side of the Moon on this list, as is it the album with the most songs featured on this list.

Read more: “Money” by Pink Floyd: 8 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know

9. High Hopes

I consider “High Hopes” the best Pink Floyd song in the band’s post-Roger Waters era. The epic was released on The Division Bell in 1994 and features some of Gilmour’s best lyrics. The words were co-written with his wife Polly Samson and discuss Gilmour’s childhood in Cambridge, England.

8. Dogs

Only Pink Floyd can record a 17-minute long song without it being the longest song in their repertoire. “Dogs” may not be the most well-known Pink Floyd song among casual listeners, but most loyal fans of Pink Floyd rank the song with the band’s very best. And so do I.

The lyrics of the song, which characterize businessmen driven by greed and power as “Dogs”, were written by Roger Waters, much to the envy of David Gilmour. “Most of the ideas were ideas I felt good about, and encapsulated a lot of the thinking that I had as well”, Gilmour said about the song. “I often wished I had been able to express them as well as he did.”

7. The Great Gig in the Sky

For number 7 I’ve picked “The Great Gig in the Sky”. The song was written by Pink Floyd’s keyboardist Richard Wright and features wordless vocals from guest singer Clare Torry. Pink Floyd desired the vocals to be improvised, leading to a difficult session for Clare Torry. “I said, ‘Well, play me the track.’ They did that, and I said, ‘Well, what do you want?’ They said, ‘We don’t know,” Torry remembers. Nevertheless, Torry delivered the job in about 2-and-a-half takes, resulting in one of the most iconic vocal performances of all time.

6. Echoes

I was always convinced “Echoes” was the longest continuous track in Pink Floyd’s repertoire, until I found out “Atom Heart Mother (Suite)” is a whole 8 seconds longer. Not that it matters much. “Echoes” – and the album it appears on Meddle – is an important transitional piece in Pink Floyd’s history. Gilmour considered the album as the ‘start of the path forward’ and according to Roger Waters “Echoes” was essential in shaping him as a lyricist. Despite being a transitional piece, “Echoes” doesn’t lack anything, as I believe the song is one of Pink Floyd’s very finest.

5. Time

“Time” is arguably the most all-encompassing Pink Floyd track. The song starts with the sounds of antique clocks (an idea by engineer Alan Parsons), followed by Nick Mason’s iconic drum intro. Roger Waters provided some of his greatest lyrics, while Richard Wright and David Gilmour shared lead vocals. And then I haven’t even mentioned Gilmour’s iconic guitar solo yet.

4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was Pink Floyd’s tribute to former band member Syd Barrett. Barrett was replaced by childhood friend Gilmour in 1968 as a result of Barrett’s deteriorated mental state. In ‘random precision’, the recording of the song was characterized by a surprise visit from an unrecognizable Syd Barret.

“He showed up at the studio. He was very fat and he had a shaved head and shaved eyebrows and no one recognized him at all first off,” David Gilmour reflected. “There was just this strange person walking around the studio, sitting in the control room with us for hours. If anyone else told me this story, I’d find it hard to believe, that you could sit there with someone in a small room for hours, with a close friend of yours for years and years, and not recognize him. And I guarantee, no one in the band recognized him.”

The first 8 minutes of the song are among the greatest instrumental bits in the band’s repertoire and introduce the song’s iconic 4-note theme titled ‘Syd’s Theme’. After that, Roger Waters takes the lead and sings the song’s moving lyrics about Syd Barrett. The song ends with a saxophone solo. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is easily one of Pink Floyd’s greatest and most essential tracks.

3. Wish You Were Here

“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” appears on the album Wish You Were Here. For number 3, I’ve picked the album’s title song. “Wish You Were Here” is one of the few examples of a Pink Floyd song where Gilmour and Waters truly collaborated on the songwriting process of the song. Gilmour wrote the song’s iconic intro, after which the bandmates finished the song together. Most of the lyrics were written by Roger Waters, and address mostly himself as well as Syd Barrett. Musically speaking, the song is one of the simplest tunes in Pink Floyd’s repertoire, but the emotional weight of the song makes it an all-time classic.

2. Us and Them

In my opinion, “Us and Them” is the greatest song on The Dark Side of the Moon. The song was originally written as a piano piece by Richard Wright for the movie Zabriskie Point in 1969, but director Michelangelo Antonioni rejected the song. A few years later, Pink Floyd decided to use the piece for “Us and Them”. The highlight of the song is Wright’s little piano interlude followed by Dick Parry’s iconic saxophone solo. Pure magic!

1. Comfortably Numb

My number 1 on this list is “Comfortably Numb”. Often referred to as Pink Floyd’s magnum opus, the song is best known for Gilmour’s two iconic guitar solos. The song was written by David Gilmour and released on the band’s iconic studio album The Wall. Oddly enough, “Comfortably Numb” is the only song from the album included on this list. It showcases how extensive Pink Floyd’s repertoire is.

According to Gilmour, the song and the solos were written easily. “I just went out into the studio and banged out five or six solos,” Gilmour told Guitar World. “From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and mark out bar lines, saying which bits are good. In other words, I make a chart, putting ticks and crosses on different bars as I count through: two ticks if it’s really good, one tick if it’s good and cross if it’s no go.”

The difficulty of the song was its mixing process. Water and Gilmour liked different recordings of “Comfortably Numb”, leading to heavy arguments. Eventually, the two takes were mixed together as a compromise. The vocals of the song were divided between Waters and Gilmour, with Waters singing the verses, and Gilmour singing to choruses. The end result is an extraordinary song that is unmatched to this very day!

Read more: Why “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd is Such An Amazing Song

That’s my list of the 10 best Pink Floyd songs of all time. I didn’t mention songs that could’ve easily ranked on this list, such as “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)”, “Hey You”, “Brain Damage”, and “Breathe”, among others. I also understand that early Pink Floyd fans will be quite disappointed with this list. Therefore, I would like to know your favorite Pink Floyd songs! Which songs would you include or exclude? What does your personal top 10 look like? Please let me know in the comments below!

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