Remember When: Pink Floyd Overcame Their Aversion To Singles and Hit No. 1 on the Pop Charts in 1979

For the vast majority of their career, Pink Floyd simply didn’t play the game when it came to looking for big hit singles. But when they did decide to capitulate ever so slightly, they delivered one of the biggest worldwide hits of its era.

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We’re talking about the 1979 UK/US No. 1 single “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2”. They might have needed some coaxing to go after such a hit. But Floyd simply owned the pop charts with this song once they relented.

Albums, Not Singles

Pink Floyd made their mark in the 70s via albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here that were tied together by overarching themes. As such, those records were generally best enjoyed by listening to them from start to finish. Floyd didn’t pay any mind to creating singles for radio play.

Occasionally, radio programmers would cherry-pick one of their songs, such as “Money” from The Dark Side Of The Moon, and make them a hit anyway. But, for the most part, Floyd was doing just fine without needing to actively court the pop charts.

The Wall, Pink Floyd’s 1979 double LP, seemed, on the surface, to be a project even less amenable to a potential radio hit than other records by the band. After all, the album followed a strict storyline, something that none of Floyd’s previous albums had tried to do. But Floyd stumbled into a massive smash anyway.

‘Wall’ Flowers

The Wall, conceived and mostly written by Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, focuses on a rock star lead character whose life events have forced him to try and isolate himself from society. Each of these formative events is “another brick in the wall.” The song “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” focuses on the damaging effects that a joyless education system had on the character.

When producer Bob Ezrin listened to the demo for “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2”, he heard the potential of a song that could utilize a four-on-the-floor disco beat. Ezrin sensed a possible breakout hit in the song, so Floyd acquiesced to his vision.

The song initially had just a single verse to go along with the refrain. Since the band simply didn’t want to repeat the lead vocals of Waters and David Gilmour singing that part twice to make the song the length of a single, a new solution was needed. A Floyd associate contacted a nearby school and corralled some children to sing the second verse like a rampaging choir.

“Brick” House

With all these elements in place and the recording finished, even the band themselves realized there was something a little bit different in “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2”. They decided to push the song as the album’s lead single, a tactic that they’d never really utilized before in their career.

Soon enough, “Another Brick In The Wall (Part ii)” was catapulting over the competition. The song ended up topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. And Pink Floyd, those somewhat faceless purveyors of dramatic angst, found themselves the unlikeliest of pop stars, at least for a little while.

Photo by Pete Still/Redferns