, shortly after its release in 1973.(left to right) David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Dick Parry, Roger Waters As the quadraphonic mix of the album was not then complete, the band (with the exception of Wright) boycotted the press reception held at the
London Planetarium on 27 February. Generally, however, the press were enthusiastic;
Melody Makers Roy Hollingworth described Side One as "so utterly confused with itself it was difficult to follow", but praised Side Two, writing: "The songs, the sounds, the rhythms were solid and sound, Saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled, and then gushed and tripped away into the night." Steve Peacock of
Sounds wrote: "I don't care if you've never heard a note of the Pink Floyd's music in your life, I'd unreservedly recommend everyone to
The Dark Side of the Moon". In ''
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981),
Robert Christgau found its lyrical ideas clichéd and its music pretentious, but called it a "
kitsch masterpiece" that can be charming with highlights such as taped speech fragments, Parry's saxophone, and studio effects which enhance Gilmour's guitar solos.
The Dark Side of the Moon was released first in the US on 1 March 1973, and then in the UK on 16 March. It became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe; Throughout March 1973 the band played the album as part of their
US tour, including a midnight performance at
Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 17 March before an audience of 6,000. The album reached the
Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart's number one spot on 28 April 1973, and was so successful that the band returned two months later for another tour. In
Canada, it was in the top three for 22 weeks between May 5 and September 29, 1973.
Label Much of the album's early American success is attributed to the efforts of Pink Floyd's US record company,
Capitol Records. Newly appointed chairman
Bhaskar Menon set about trying to reverse the relatively poor sales of the band's 1971 studio album
Meddle. Meanwhile, disenchanted with Capitol, the band and manager O'Rourke had been quietly negotiating a new contract with
CBS president
Clive Davis, on
Columbia Records.
The Dark Side of the Moon was the last album that Pink Floyd were obliged to release before formally signing a new contract. Menon's enthusiasm for the new album was such that he began a huge promotional advertising campaign, which included radio-friendly truncated versions of "Us and Them" and "Time". In some countries notably the UK Pink Floyd had not released a single since 1968's "
Point Me at the Sky", and unusually "Money" was released as a single on 7 May, with "Any Colour You Like" on the
B-side. It reached number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973. A two-sided white label promotional version of the single, with mono and stereo mixes, was sent to radio stations. The mono side had the word "bullshit" removed from the song leaving "bull" in its place however, the stereo side retained the uncensored version. This was subsequently withdrawn; the replacement was sent to radio stations with a note advising disc jockeys to dispose of the first uncensored copy. On 4 February 1974, a
double A-side single was released with "Time" on one side, and "Us and Them" on the opposite side. Menon's efforts to secure a contract renewal with Pink Floyd were in vain however; at the beginning of 1974, the band signed for Columbia with a reported advance fee of $1M (in Britain and Europe they continued to be represented by
Harvest Records).
Sales The Dark Side of the Moon became one of the
best-selling albums of all time and is in the top 25 of a list of
best-selling albums in the United States. Although it held the number one spot in the US for only a week, it remained in the
Billboard 200 albums chart for 736 nonconsecutive weeks (from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988). Of those first 736 charted weeks, the album had two notable consecutive runs in the
Billboard 200 chart: 84 weeks (from 17 March 1973 to 19 October 1974) and 593 weeks (from 18 December 1976 to 23 April 1988). It made its final appearance in the
Billboard 200 albums chart during its initial run on the week ending 8 October 1988, in its 741st charted week. It re-appeared on the
Billboard charts with the introduction of the
Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in the issue dated 25 May 1991, and was still a perennial feature ten years later. It reached number one on the Pop Catalog chart when the 2003 hybrid CD/
SACD edition was released and sold 800,000 copies in the US. After a change in chart methodology in 2009, which allowed catalogue titles to be included in the
Billboard 200,
The Dark Side of the Moon returned to the chart at number 189 on 12 December of that year for its 742nd charting week. It has continued to sporadically appear on the
Billboard 200 since then, with the total at 996 weeks on the chart as of January 2026. "On a slow week" between 8,000 and 9,000 copies are sold. In 2007, one in every fourteen people in the US under the age of 50 was estimated to have owned a copy. "Money" has sold well as a single, and as with "Time", remains a radio favourite; in the US, for the year ending 20 April 2005, "Time" was played on 13,723 occasions, and "Money" on 13,731 occasions. In 2017,
The Dark Side of the Moon was the seventh-bestselling album of all time in the UK and the highest-selling album never to reach number one. As one of the
blockbuster LPs of the
album era (1960s–2000s),
The Dark Side of the Moon also led to an increase in record sales overall into the late 1970s. In 2013, industry sources suggested that worldwide sales of
The Dark Side of the Moon totalled about 45 million.In 1993, Gilmour attributed the album's success to the combination of music, lyrics and cover art: "All the music before had not had any great lyrical point to it. And this one was clear and concise." Mason said that, when they finished the album, Pink Floyd felt confident it was their best work to date, but were surprised by its commercial success. He said it was "not only about being a good album but also about being in the right place at the right time". and in April 1988 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format. It was released by EMI and Harvest on CD in Japan in June 1983 and in the US and Europe in August 1984. In 1992, it was rereleased as a remastered CD in the box set
Shine On. This version was re-released as a 20th-anniversary box set edition with postcards the following year, with a cover design by Thorgerson. was commissioned by EMI but never endorsed by Pink Floyd, as Parsons was disappointed with his mix. Guthrie had worked with Pink Floyd since their eleventh album,
The Wall, and had previously worked on surround versions of
The Wall for DVD-Video and Waters'
In the Flesh for SACD. In 2003, Parsons expressed disappointment with Guthrie's SACD mix, suggesting he was "possibly a little too true to the original mix", but was generally complimentary. and sold more than 800,000 copies. The cover image of the 30th-anniversary edition was created by a team of designers including Thorgerson. The image is a photograph of a custom-made
stained glass window, built to match the dimensions and proportions of the original prism design. Transparent glass, held in place by strips of lead, was used in place of the opaque colours of the original. The idea is derived from the "sense of purity in the sound quality, being 5.1 surround sound ..." The image was created out of a desire to be "the same but different, such that the design was clearly DSotM, still the recognisable prism design, but was different and hence new".
Later reissues The Dark Side of the Moon was rereleased in 2003 on 180-gram virgin vinyl and mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech Mastering. It included slightly different versions of the posters and stickers that came with the original vinyl release, along with a new 30th-anniversary poster. In 2007, the album was included in
Oh, by the Way, a box set celebrating the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd, and a
DRM-free version was released on the
iTunes Store. In 2023, Pink Floyd released the
Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary box set, including a newly remastered edition of the album, surround sound mixes (including the 5.1 mix and a new
Dolby Atmos mix), a photo book, and
The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974, on vinyl. In 2024, the 50th Anniversary LP edition was rereleased in two clear vinyl LPs; only one side of each LP is playable to allow the
UV artwork to be printed on the non-groove side. == Legacy ==