The Most Iconic Pink Floyd Album of All Time

2025-06-06

Pink Floyd album covers.

Audio Ink Radio presents its pick for the most iconic Pink Floyd album of all time, and it’s a legendary one. – Author: Anne Erickson, Images of Pink Floyd album art

Pink Floyd is one of those bands that only comes around once in a very long time. Actually, there is no other band even remotely like Pink Floyd, so one couldn’t even say that a band like Pink Floyd comes around once in a generation. Pink Floyd came around once, and that’s it.

The band formed in London, England, in 1965 and garnered a massive following as one of the pioneering bands in the psychedelic rock genre. At the beginning of their career, the main members of Pink Floyd included bass player Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour, guitarist Syd Barrett, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Rick Wright. According to Britannica, the group had some name changes before deciding to blend “the first names of a pair of Carolina bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.” So, they got Pink Floyd.

Polar Music Prize adds that Waters and Mason met when they were both studying architecture at the London Polytechnic in Regent Street. Soon thereafter, Wright joined, and they played in “Pink Floyd’s predecessor, Sigma 6.”

Pink Floyd has released a wealth of fantastic albums over the course of their career, so it was difficult to pinpoint one as their best. But, we did it. In honor of this legendary classic rock band, Audio Ink Radio presents its pick for the most iconic Pink Floyd album of all time, and it’s a classic one.

The Greatest Pink Floyd Album

Pink Floyd has so many groundbreaking albums, from 1975’s “Wish You Were Here” to 1979’s “The Wall.” But, 1973’s “Dark Side of the Moon” stands out as our favorite of the collection.

“Dark Side of the Moon” is beloved for its incredible instrumentals, trippy atmospheres and massive commercial success. Pink Floyd releasing “Dark Side of the Moon” was really the moment when they went from rock sensations to worldwide superstars. Both sides of the album are great, but we prefer the second side, because it has more of an underground feel and character.

Mojo Magazine also ranked the album the best in Pink Floyd’s catalog, stating that even with its prog rock ingenuity, “Dark Side of the Moon” really “owed a little to the Stones’ ‘Exile… (the soulful backing vocals) and Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ (wrapping loosely related material into a concept).” Mojo adds, “The result was a record that defined the decade, that became more famous than the band themselves, and an enduring rock classic that still sounds as crisp and relevant as it did 40 years ago.”

In Rolling Stone’s readers’ poll about the best Pink Floyd albums, “Dark Side of the Moon” easily won, too. “This wasn’t even a close contest,” the publication stated. “‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ destroyed everything else in the poll, and it’s really no big surprise. This is the album that Pink Floyd had been working toward since their very first rehearsal in 1965.”

Billboard notes that this album has spent 990 weeks on the chart, so it’s close to 1,000. Something tells us it will get there soon. For its groundbreaking nature and influence on rock music for decades, “Dark Side of the Moon” is our pick for the most iconic Pink Floyd record of all time.

Check out Audio Ink Radio’s feature on the best albums with no bad songs, too.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Features, Music, Rock

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