What is the biggest selling Pink Floyd single?
Pink Floyd remains one of the biggest rock bands of all time, but between the seismic notoriety of their overall albums or incessant infighting, it can be easy to lose sight of their individual artistic mastery. Amid the unparalleled heights of Dark Side of the Moon, however, it is somewhat surprising to find that their best-selling song comes from a completely different era—indeed, in a moment that threatened to tear them apart.
The Wall, the band’s 11th studio album released in 1979, was very much bassist Roger Waters’ brainchild. An expansive rock opera, as a concept, it charted the rise and fall of a fading star who hides themselves away from the world – a hauntingly familiar overture to real life with Pink Floyd’s original 1960s frontman Syd Barrett. But the album’s epic mid-trilogy tune ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’ takes the crown for the outfit’s best-selling song of all time, making every moment of the conflict in its creation more than worth it.
Beating out the likes of ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ to the top spot, ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’ meant the famous spirit of Pink Floyd was forever enshrined in their legacy – not that they weren’t already set on that path. However, that singular song carved out a revolution like no other, especially evident in its sales heights.
Selling more than a whopping four million copies worldwide and topping the charts in no less than 14 countries, the song not only became the band’s most successful effort but also, likely for that reason, their most political. The blazing sentiments of “Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!” spoke to the last dying breaths of a punk rebellion to seal its iconic fate.
What inspired ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’?
Railing against the childlike institutionalisation of school life, Waters said the heart of the tune was really rooted in “a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that.” But like so many tough campaigns, the key to enlivening the masses was purely in its simplicity.
Channelling this evidently in his own childhood memories, the song’s creator added: “You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ’50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion.” Despite its rallying cries suggesting a unified front, however, the process of getting The Wall over the line was laborious to say the least. The strain of the project led to keyboardist Richard Wright exiting the band, making Waters’ concept gamble far from certain sights.
All in all, it transpired to be both the best of times and the worst of times for Pink Floyd, because as much as The Wall spawned their most critical single, it ultimately tore the already gaping voids between the band into insurmountable chasms. That wall seemed to turn into as much a physical entity as a metaphorical one, proving ultimately that not all that glitters is gold.
