Their 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon took them from the fringes of psychedelic rock and put them on the top of the charts. The album went on to become one of the best selling records of all time, spending more than twenty-five years on Billboard's Top 200 chart. They had further success with Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall, which sold more than 20 million copies (1979), Pink Floyd released seventeen, non-compilation albums, but by the 1980’s the band drifted apart.

In the winter of 1979, Producer Bob Ezrin took the master tapes for the song “Comfortably Numb” with him to New York and recorded a full orchestra. When he played them for Gilmore, Gilmore absolutely hated them. Gilmore was insistent that the song be stripped down. They eventually compromised and “Comfortably Numb” was released with full orchestration for the first half and guitar as the dominant instrument for the second half.