Top Ten Songs by Pink Floyd

Picking only 10 songs by Pink Floyd as "top" selections is a tough task. It's like picking only ten days of the year you want to eat ice cream. Clearly you need more choices.

For every Pink Floyd song you pick there are probably two or three great ones that you can't. The band wasn't in the habit of making radio-ready singles and stuffing the rest of their albums with filler. Each album is as much about the total package as the individual parts, so there are seldom any "throwaway" songs, regardless of your personal taste. Even if you don't like the style of a particular song, you can recognize its quality.

It's also tough to choose just 10 songs by Pink Floyd because their songs were so good on so many levels. It's a combination of the music, lyrics, and message that makes Pink Floyd's work so awe-inspiring.

Thad said, here are my top ten Pink Floyd songs, in no particular order:

Pigs (Three Different Ones)

This is classic Pink Floyd. A long, melodic journey, with themes that reoccur throughout the song, musically and otherwise, trippy effects, social commentary, and actual oinking that only adds to the thinly veiled metaphor. Off their 1977 album "Animals," this song is in very good company on that album.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Ominous, beautiful, heavenly, haunting, there aren't enough adjectives to describe this song. Off 1975's "Wish You Were Here,"  a group of songs reportedly dedicated to the group's original frontman, Syd Barrett, this is the kind of song that transports you to a place where petty problems don't exist. If you ever see this song performed live, it will wash you clean.

Echoes