#93 Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 93
- 2011 Album Rank
- 62
- Total Points
- 692
- Year Released
- 1975
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- 1
- Weeks at #1
- 2
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 6,000,000 (Multi Platinum)
- Buy Album
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Wish You Were Here Album Details
Wish You Were Here is a haunting meditation on absence, alienation, and the cost of artistic success. Conceived in the wake of The Dark Side of the Moon's massive success, the album reflects Pink Floyd's disillusionment with the music industry and their growing estrangement from former bandmate Syd Barrett. Structured around the nine-part suite Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the album pays direct tribute to Barrett while exploring themes of creative burnout and emotional detachment. The band used extensive studio experimentation, incorporating synthesizers, found sounds, and tape effects to craft a richly layered sonic landscape.
Despite its emotional heaviness, the album manages to feel intimate and expansive. Tracks like Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar deliver scathing critiques of the music business, while the title track offers a mournful, acoustic respite. The music and themes resonate deeply with fans and musicians alike, making Wish You Were Here not just one of Pink Floyd's most revered albums, but one of rock's most poignant statements of loss and longing.
Other Pink Floyd albums on the list: The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
Interesting Facts About Wish You Were Here
- Syd Barrett unexpectedly visited the studio during the recording of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, reportedly overweight and with a shaved head. The band initially did not recognize him.
- Have a Cigar features lead vocals by Roy Harper, a friend of the band, because neither Waters nor Gilmour was satisfied with their own vocal takes.
- The transition from Have a Cigar to Wish You Were Here includes a clever studio effect where the former ends as if being played on a radio and segues directly into the latter as someone begins tuning and strumming a guitar.
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond was originally conceived as one continuous piece but was split into two sections to bookend the album.
- The album sleeve, designed by Hipgnosis, featured a man on fire shaking hands, symbolizing insincerity in business dealings. The image was achieved with a stuntman in a flame-retardant suit.
- Richard Wright's keyboard work on the album, especially on Welcome to the Machine, is among his most atmospheric and influential performances.
- Though it received mixed reviews upon release, Wish You Were Here has since become one of Pink Floyd's most beloved albums and a staple of progressive rock.
- In later years, Roger Waters would cite Wish You Were Here as the last truly collaborative Pink Floyd album before creative tensions began to take over the band dynamic.
Wish You Were Here Tracklist
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I - V)
- Welcome to the Machine
- Have a Cigar
- Wish You Were Here
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI - IX)
