<Li> "Us and Them" Released: 4 February 1974 </Li> <P> The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records . The album built on ideas explored in earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their earlier work . Its themes explore conflict, greed, the passage of time, and mental illness, the latter partly inspired by the deteriorating mental state of founding member and principal contributor, Syd Barrett . </P> <P> Developed during live performances, an early version was premiered several months before recording began; new material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at Abbey Road in London . The group used some advanced recording techniques at the time, including multitrack recording and tape loops . Analogue synthesizers were prominent in several tracks, and snippets from recorded interviews with Pink Floyd's road crew and others provided philosophical quotations throughout . Engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many distinctive sonic aspects and the recruitment of singer Clare Torry . The album's iconic sleeve was designed by Storm Thorgerson; following keyboardist Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design, it depicts a prism spectrum, representing the band's lighting and the record's themes . </P> <P> The Dark Side of the Moon was a commercial and critical success . It topped the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart for a week and remained in the chart for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988 . With an estimated 45 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd's most successful album and one of the best - selling worldwide . It has been remastered and re-released several times, and covered in its entirety by several acts . It produced two singles, "Money" and "Us and Them". It is often ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time . </P>

When was dark side of the moon written