Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd

For other uses, see The Best of Pink Floyd.
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
Greatest hits album by Pink Floyd
Released 5 November 2001
Recorded 1967–1994
Genre Progressive rock, psychedelic rock
Length 2:35:23
2:35:13 (vinyl version)
Label
Producer James Guthrie, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd chronology
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81
(2000)
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
(2001)
Oh, by the Way
(2007)

Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd is the fourth compilation album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 5 November 2001 by EMI internationally and a day later by Capitol Records in the United States. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart on 24 November 2001, with sales of 214,650 copies.[1] It remained on the chart for 26 weeks.[2] The album was certified Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum on 6 December 2001 in the US by the RIAA. It was certified Triple Platinum in the US on 8 January 2002, and Quadruple platinum on 10 September 2007.

Contents

The compilation spans the career of Pink Floyd from their first single "Arnold Layne" in 1967, through to "High Hopes", the final track from their 1994 studio album The Division Bell. Four of their albums—More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds—are not represented whatsoever, though multiple tracks from Atom Heart Mother[3] and Ummagumma were planned to appear on the compilation. Each of the 26 tracks fades from one to the next with no break in the music, courtesy of longtime producer/engineer James Guthrie, to help recreate the concept album feel of the band's mid-period work. All 26 tracks were newly remastered specifically for this compilation and are not sequenced in chronological order.

The band's longtime guitarist, David Gilmour, said of the process of compiling the tracks themselves:

There’s been the occasional phone call but no great brainstorming sessions to get us all together. All our stuff [is] conducted through our engineer James Guthrie, who coordinated Echoes from his place in Lake Tahoe.[3]

Cover

Storm Thorgerson, who had done the majority of album covers for Pink Floyd, did the Echoes art which features recursive windows in an infinite regression as a nod to his own cover for 1969's Ummagumma, and the objects on each landscape refer to the Pink Floyd discography. For instance, there's the man on fire from Wish You Were Here, another wearing the Delicate Sound of Thunder lightbulb suit, dolls of the Atom Heart Mother cow and the Animals pig, a bike and both a brick wall and the hammers from The Wall. Eventually Thorgerson opted to make two images, with another used for the back cover. To create the idea on a photograph, various walls - which had varied measurements and angles to ensure that "nothing seemed to fit other than by eye through the lens." - were built and put in a country landscape in Sussex. Actors, props and fittings were set in and between those walls.[4] The original design was one of two sketches submitted for Dream Theater's 1997 album Falling into Infinity, with the original being framed and hanging in the home of former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and is pointed out by Portnoy in his Hudson Music instructional drum DVD In Constant Motion.[5]

Release

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[6]

Echoes is the first album released on Compact Disc that includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which appeared in the film version of Pink Floyd—The Wall (the song later appeared on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut in a slightly re-mixed form). It is the first compilation that includes songs from their previous three albums—The Final Cut, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell—and is also the only compilation album so far that includes "Echoes" from the 1971 album Meddle. A week after the band's one-off reunion at Live 8, HMV said the sales of Echoes rose by 1343%.[7]

Track listing

"We’ve been arguing about it [track selection] since May. Nick sent us a list right at the beginning, then he seemed to lose interest. Rick never seemed to want to get involved in it. It wandered along rather fitfully until recently, when I thought I'd better work out what we should be trying to do with it, whether we should try and represent every album or not, and on what basis we should be choosing songs. In the end we had to get everyone to vote on a list. (...) I agree [that most of the songs seemed to have picked themselves]. When I look at it, its bloody obvious really. It's amazing how long the process has been getting it sorted out."

CD version

Disc one

No. TitleWriter(s)Lead vocals Length
1. "Astronomy Domine" (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967))Syd BarrettBarrett, Richard Wright 4:10
2. "See Emily Play" ("See Emily Play" single (1967), with an early cut-off; appears on 1971 Relics (1971), and 1967 US/Japan versions of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)BarrettBarrett 2:47
3. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" (The Wall (1979))Roger WatersWaters 1:38
4. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" (The Wall)WatersDavid Gilmour, Waters 4:01
5. "Echoes" (Edited version; Meddle (1971))Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Nick MasonGilmour, Wright 16:30
6. "Hey You" (The Wall)WatersGilmour, Waters 4:39
7. "Marooned" (First half only; The Division Bell (1994))Gilmour, WrightInstrumental 2:02
8. "The Great Gig in the Sky" (The Dark Side of the Moon (1973))Wright, Clare TorryInstrumental, with vocals by Torry 4:40
9. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (A Saucerful of Secrets (1968))WatersWaters 5:20
10. "Money" (The Dark Side of the Moon)WatersGilmour 6:29
11. "Keep Talking" (Early fade-out; The Division Bell)Gilmour, Wright, Polly SamsonGilmour 5:57
12. "Sheep" (Early fade-out; Animals)WatersWaters 9:46
13. "Sorrow" (A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987))GilmourGilmour 8:45

Disc two

No. TitleWriter(s)Lead vocals Length
1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1–7)" (Edited version; Wish You Were Here (1975))Gilmour, Waters, WrightWaters 17:32
2. "Time" (includes "Breathe (In the Air) (Reprise)"; The Dark Side of the Moon)Gilmour, Waters, Wright, MasonGilmour, Wright 6:48
3. "The Fletcher Memorial Home" (The Final Cut (1983))WatersWaters 4:07
4. "Comfortably Numb" (includes the coda of "Bring the Boys Back Home"; The Wall)Gilmour, WatersGilmour, Waters 6:53
5. "When the Tigers Broke Free" (The Wall film soundtrack (1982), also on 2004-present remasters of The Final Cut)WatersWaters 3:42
6. "One of These Days" (Meddle, edited version)Gilmour, Waters, Wright, MasonInstrumental, with spoken words by Mason 5:15
7. "Us and Them" (Edited ending, The Dark Side of the Moon)Waters, WrightGilmour, Wright 7:51
8. "Learning to Fly" (A Momentary Lapse of Reason)Gilmour, Anthony Moore, Bob Ezrin, Jon CarinGilmour 4:50
9. "Arnold Layne" ("Arnold Layne" single (1967); appears on Relics)BarrettBarrett 2:52
10. "Wish You Were Here" (Early fade-out; Wish You Were Here)Gilmour, WatersGilmour 5:21
11. "Jugband Blues" (A Saucerful of Secrets)BarrettBarrett 2:56
12. "High Hopes" (Edited version; The Division Bell)Gilmour, SamsonGilmour 6:59
13. "Bike" (with bell intro; The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)BarrettBarrett 3:24

Vinyl version

Rejected songs

According to James Guthrie, the following songs were considered for inclusion:[8]

Credits

Pink Floyd
Additional personnel

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (2001) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[9] 4
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[10] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[11] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[12] 3
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[13] 2
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[14] 3
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[15] 3
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[16] 16
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[17] 1
Irish Albums (IRMA)[18] 2
Italian Albums (FIMI)[19] 1
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[20] 1
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[21] 2
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[22] 4
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 3
UK Albums (OCC)[25] 2
US Billboard 200[26] 2

Certifications

Country Certification Sales Last certification date
Australia Platinum[27] 70,000+ 2001
Belgium Platinum[28] 50,000+ 2002
Canada 6× Platinum[29] 600,000+ 29 April 2002
Denmark Gold[30] 15,000+ December 2001
Europe 3× Platinum[31] 3,000,000+ 2007
France Platinum[32] 300,000+ 7 November 2001
Germany Gold[33] 100,000+ 2002
Greece Platinum[34] 30,000+ 2002
Italy Gold[35] 25,000+ 24 April 2015
New Zealand 3× Platinum[36] 45,000+ December 2001
Poland Gold[37] 50,000+ 16 January 2002
Switzerland Platinum[38] 40,000+ 2001
United Kingdom 2× Platinum[39] 600,000+ 11 January 2002
United States 4× Platinum[40] 2,000,000+ (double disc) 10 September 2007

Notes

  1. Stephen M. Silverman (15 November 2001). "Britney Spears Upsets Michael Jackson". People. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  2. Joel Whitburn Presents The Billboard Albums, 6th Edition, Joel Whitburn, ed., 2006, p. 820.
  3. 1 2 3 "Have Pink Floyd Split Up?". Mojo Magazine. October 2001. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  4. Thorgerson, Storm. "The Visuals". Pink Floyd. Archived from the original on 7 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
  5. "Mike Portnoy: In Constant Motion DVD". Hudson Music. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  6. Johnson, Zac (2011). "Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd - Pink Floyd | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  7. Manning, Toby (2006). "Which One's Pink?". The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 150. ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
  8. Guthrie, James. "James Guthrie: Audio: Building A Compilation Album". Pink Floyd. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  9. "Australiancharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  10. "Austriancharts.at – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  11. "Ultratop.be – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  12. "Ultratop.be – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  13. "Pink Floyd – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Pink Floyd. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  14. "Danishcharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  15. "Dutchcharts.nl – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  16. "Pink Floyd: Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat IFPI Finland. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  17. "Offiziellecharts.de – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  18. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 45, 2001". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  19. "Italiancharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  20. "Charts.org.nz – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  21. "Norwegiancharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  22. "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLIS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  23. "Swedishcharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  24. "Swisscharts.com – Pink Floyd – Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  25. "Pink Floyd | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  26. "Pink Floyd – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Pink Floyd. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  27. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2001 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  28. "Ultratop − Goud en Platina – 2001". Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  29. "Gold & Platinum Certification – April 2002". Canadian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  30. "Danish album certifications". IFPI Denmark. Retrieved 11 January 2013. Click on næste to go to page 50 if certification from official website
  31. "IFPI Platinum Europe Awards Q4 2007". IFPI. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  32. "French album certifications" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  33. "Bundesverband Musikindustrie: Gold-/Platin-Datenbank". Bundesverband Musikindustrie (IFPI.DE). Retrieved 8 August 2011. Enter "Pink Floyd" in the "Interpret" field
  34. "Greek Albums Chart". IFPI Greece. 28 February 2002. Archived from the original on 28 February 2002. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  35. "Italian Certifications". FIMI. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  36. "New Zealand album certifications". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  37. "Złote CD (2002)". ZPAV. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  38. "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards 2001". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  39. "BPI certified awards search". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 8 August 2011. Enter "Pink Floyd" in the "Search" field.
  40. "RIAA - Gold & Platinum - July 03, 2009". www.riaa.com. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
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