A Collection of Great Dance Songs is a compilation album by Pink Floyd released on 23 November 1981 (1981-11-23) on Harvest/EMI in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States.
The title is facetious, given that Pink Floyd are not known for making particularly danceable music. This is perhaps evidenced by the album art, which featured a photograph of ballroom dancers guyed to the ground so they cannot move. The inner sleeve had pictures of dancers in either a white (UK) or black (US) background. The picture labels were a black background with blue lines and red sketch lined dancers on side one and reverse on side two.
Tracks [edit]
The album contains alternate mixes of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (which comprises parts 1, 2, 4 and 7) edited down for time reasons, and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" (which combines the intro from the single mix with the album version which fades out during the "if you don't eat your meat" ending). Also, the track "Money" was re-recorded as Capitol Records refused to license the track to Columbia/CBS Records. David Gilmour re-recorded the track himself playing all of the drums, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar and vocals and co-producing the song with James Guthrie. Dick Parry reprised his saxophone role on the track. There are some differences between the re-recorded version and the original; mainly in the saxophone and guitar solos and the overall use of reverb and Gilmour repeating "away" at the end instead of the high pitch scat singing on the original. The drumming is noticeably different from Nick Mason's, especially during the guitar solo, with very little of the tom-tom fills heard on the original.
Charts and re-release [edit]
The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on 29 January 1982 and Platinum on 6 July 1989 and Double Platinum in August, 2001. The album reached number 37 on the United Kingdom charts and number 31 in the United States. Columbia issued the remastered CD in 1997 in the US and most of the world save Europe. Then a 1997 remastered CD was re-released in 2000 on Capitol Records in the US and EMI for the rest of the world including Europe.
Track listing [edit]
Original LP [edit]
8-track cartridge [edit]
- Program 1
- "One of These Days"
- "Wish You Were Here"
- Program 2
- "Sheep"
- Program 3
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Edit)
- Program 4
- "Money" (1981 re-recording)
- "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" (new edit)
Personnel [edit]
- Pink Floyd
- Roger Waters – bass (except on "Money" and "Sheep"), lead vocals on "Sheep", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II", backing vocals, rhythm guitar on "Sheep"
- Richard Wright – keyboards and synthesizers (except on "Money"), backing vocals
- David Gilmour – lead and rhythm guitars, lead vocals on "Wish You Were Here", "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" and "Money", bass on "One of These Days", "Money and "Sheep", backing vocals, drums and keyboard on "Money"
- Nick Mason – drums (except on "Money"), vocal phrase on "One of These Days"
- Additional personnel
Sales chart performance [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Ruhlmann, William (2011 [last update]). "A Collection of Great Dance Songs - Pink Floyd | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (2011 [last update]). "Robert Christgau: CG: Pink Floyd". robertchristgau.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "Chart Stats - Pink Floyd - A Collection Of Great Dance Songs". www.chartstats.com. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
- ^ allmusic ((( Pink Floyd > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums ))
- ^ "norwegiancharts.com - Pink Floyd - A Collection Of Great Dance Songs". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
External links [edit]
