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Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd album)

Wish You Were Here
An image of two men dressed in dark grey business attire standing in the grounds of a Hollywood film studio, facing each other and shaking hands. The man on the right's hair and clothes are on fire, but he seems oblivious to the fact. The upper right edge of the photograph appears singed.
Original US album cover. The original UK/current cover uses a different shot.
Studio album by Pink Floyd
Released 12 September 1975
Recorded January–July 1975
Studio Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre
Length 44:28
Label
Producer Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd chronology
The Dark Side of the Moon
(1973)
Wish You Were Here
(1975)
Animals
(1977)
Alternate cover
The black plastic covers the whole vinyl package. The circle sticker at the right-center position shows two machines clasped together, resembling a handshake. The whole circle is divided into four quarters in different colors. The pink quarter, located on north, has "PINK FLOYD" in big font; below the band name is "WISH YOU WERE HERE" in small font. The yellow quarter is at west; the blue quarter, east; the green quarter, south.
Original vinyl shrink wrap
Singles from Wish You Were Here
  1. "Have a Cigar"
    Released: 15 November 1975
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 5/5 stars
Blender 5/5 stars
Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4/5 stars
The Great Rock Discography 10/10
Music Story 5/5 stars
MusicHound Rock 5/5
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 5/5 stars
The Village Voice A–

Wish You Were Here is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 12 September 1975 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and a day later by Columbia Records in the United States. Inspired by material the group composed while performing around Europe, Wish You Were Here was recorded during numerous recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. Two of the album's four songs criticise the music business, another expresses alienation and the multi-part track "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is a tribute to Syd Barrett, whose mental breakdown had forced him to leave the group seven years earlier after the release of the group's debut studio album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It was also lead writer Roger Waters's idea to split "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" into two parts and use it to bookend the album around three new compositions, introducing a new concept as the group had done with their previous album, The Dark Side of the Moon. As with The Dark Side of the Moon, the band used studio effects and synthesizers, and brought in guest singers to supply vocals on some tracks of the album. These singers were Roy Harper, who provided the lead vocals on "Have a Cigar", and the Blackberries, who added backing vocals to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

Wish You Were Here was an instant commercial success (despite the fact that Harvest Records' parent company EMI was unable to print enough copies of the album to satisfy commercial demand), and although it initially received mixed reviews, the album has since gone on to receive critical acclaim. It appears on Rolling Stone's lists of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and the "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time". Band members Richard Wright and David Gilmour have cited Wish You Were Here as their favourite Pink Floyd album, and many critics and fans have considered the album to be the band's magnum opus.


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Wikipedia

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