A Collection of Great Dance Songs

A Collection of Great Dance Songs
Greatest hits album by Pink Floyd
Released	23 November 1981 (1981-11-23)
Recorded	1971–1981
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	42:01
Language	English
Label	Harvest/EMI
Producer	Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, James Guthrie and Bob Ezrin
Pink Floyd compilations chronology
A Nice Pair (1973) A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) Works (1983)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B+[2]
Rolling Stone

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.

Album

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

The album contains alternate mixes of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (which comprises parts 1, 2, 4 and 7) 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 slight differences between the re-recorded version and the original; mainly in certain sections of 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.

Charts and re-release

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 #37 on the United Kingdom charts and #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

Original LP

8-track cartridge

Program 1

1. "One of These Days"
2. "Wish You Were Here"

Program 2

3. "Sheep"

Program 3

4. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Edit)

Program 4

5. "Money" (1981 re-recording)
6. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" (new edit)

Personnel

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

• James Guthrie – remastering production
• The Islington Green School – vocals on "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II"
• Dick Parry – saxophone on "Money"
• Doug Sax – mastering and remastering
• TCP (pseudonym for Hipgnosis) – sleeve design and photos (Storm Thorgerson, Peter Christopherson, and Aubrey "Po" Powell)

Sales chart performance

References

1. ^ Ruhlmann, William (2011 [last update]). "A Collection of Great Dance Songs - Pink Floyd | AllMusic". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r15237. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
2. ^ Christgau, Robert (2011 [last update]). "Robert Christgau: CG: Pink Floyd". robertchristgau.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1085&name=Pink+Floyd. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
3. ^ "Chart Stats - Pink Floyd - A Collection Of Great Dance Songs". www.chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/albuminfo.php?id=5560. Retrieved 2 July 2009. 
4. ^ allmusic ((( Pink Floyd > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums ))
5. ^ "norwegiancharts.com - Pink Floyd - A Collection Of Great Dance Songs". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Pink+Floyd&titel=A+Collection+Of+Great+Dance+Songs&cat=a. Retrieved 2 July 2009. 

External links

• Album trivia and quotes