What are the only Pink Floyd songs to ever make the charts?

One of the most iconic rock bands of all time, the influence of Pink Floyd is utterly unavoidable. From their early days as the forerunners of Britain’s psychedelic revolution to the profound mastery of smash-hit records like The Dark Side of the Moon and beyond, the band crafted a plethora of innovative and revolutionary albums that altered the course of rock history forever. Despite this unparalleled reputation and their enduring legacy within music, Pink Floyd rarely featured in the mainstream singles charts.

Since the dawn of popular music, the singles chart has often been treated as a kind of metric for success. Artists and careers are often defined by how many number-one singles they produced, or how often they performed on Top of the Pops, and the cultural revolution of the 1960s was no different. Even the most rebellious groups of the decade – the likes of The Rolling Stones, for instance – were still chasing chart successes. After all, number-one singles pay the bills.

On the other hand, Pink Floyd never tried to court the attention of the musical mainstream. Their early period, under the leadership of Syd Barrett, was more focused on exploring the inspiration of psychedelia and pushing the boundaries of what was achievable in rock music. Even after Barrett was pushed out of the group, innovation remained the key driving force behind the group. Albums like The Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here were unlike anything that had been heard before, even if they produced a distinct lack of hit singles.

Those albums were, of course, incredibly successful in their own right, with The Dark Side of the Moon topping the US album charts and reaching number two in the UK. However, Pink Floyd always worked in an album format, giving little thought to penning traditional ‘hit singles’, opting instead to craft vast narratives, arching over entire tracklistings.

As a result, the band only entered six singles into the UK Top 40 over the course of their existence, the most successful being ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, their only number one, and only five into the Billboard Hot 100, despite being one of the most legendary rock bands of all time.

The only Pink Floyd songs to reach the US singles charts:

5. ‘Money’ (1973) – No. 13

In their native United Kingdom, Pink Floyd found their first chart successes with Syd Barrett’s masterpiece tracks ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘See Emily Play’ in 1967. In the US, however, the group would have to wait another six years before their first entry into the Billboard Hot 100. ‘Money’ formed the opening of side two of The Dark Side of the Moon, and it is a pretty unlikely candidate for a hit single, owing to its unusual time signature and use of tape loops, which at that point were largely resigned to the world of underground experimental music.

Despite its profound innovation, or perhaps because of it, ‘Money’ ended up becoming the band’s first hit in the US, reaching number 13 in the Hot 100 upon its release in 1973, around two months after the number-one selling album The Dark Side of the Moon hit the airwaves.

4. ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)’ (1979) – No. 1

Following on from ‘Money’, it would be another five years before Pink Floyd produced another hit single, but they certainly came back with a vengeance. ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)’ is undoubtedly among the band’s most beloved and recognisable efforts – even the most casual of listeners can likely recall the child chorus of “We don’t need no education.” So, it should come as no surprise that the track reached number one in the Hot 100 in January 1980, a few months after its initial release.

The enigmatic anthem was Pink Floyd’s only number-one hit in the US, but it made a much larger impact in the UK, where it also topped the charts. A defiant protest song against corporal punishment in schools, The Wall track became the Christmas number-one for 1979, also making it the final number-one single of the decade. Perhaps its biggest accolade, though, was the fact that Margaret Thatcher was said to have hated the song.

3.‘Run Like Hell’ (1980) – No. 53

Another hit single to come from the track listing of The Wall was ‘Run Like Hell’, the band’s tale of a failed rockstar descending into fascism. A notable track within the band’s discography, ‘Run Like Hell’ was the last original effort to have been written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour, before Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 following The Final Cut. Although the song didn’t reach the heady heights of ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, it became a top 20 single in Sweden and Canada when issued as a single in 1980.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the song fared a little less favourably. Reaching number 53 in the Hot 100 in 1980, the song detailing Waters’ issues with the music industry and stardom didn’t seem to resonate with audiences quite as well as the previous single issued from The Wall. Nevertheless, ‘Run Like Hell’ was still more successful than any of the subsequent Pink Floyd efforts that made it into the charts.

2.‘Learning To Fly’ (1987) – No. 70

After Roger Waters’ tumultuous departure from Pink Floyd in 1985, it was down to David Gilmour to lead the group into their next record, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. By the standards set out by the band up to that point, the album was severely lacking in quality, losing even the drumming style of Nick Mason as a result of its various drum machines and session artists. Even still, the album did manage to produce a minor hit in ‘Learning To Fly’.

Shortly after its release in 1987, the single topped the mainstream rock chart in the US, but it only managed to reach a modest 70 on the Hot 100. Taking inspiration from Gilmour’s efforts to learn to become a pilot, in addition to ushering in this much-maligned new era for Pink Floyd, the song is far from being the most profound or relatable track the band ever produced, and that is certainly reflected in its level of commercial success.

1.‘Take It Back’ (1994) – No. 73

Pink Floyd’s final entry into the US singles chart came in 1994, with the song ‘Take It Back’ from their triumphant return to form on The Division Bell. The single marked the band’s first in seven years, and it was rewarded with a commendable degree of chart success. It reached number 23 in the UK charts and even broke into the top ten in Canada. In the United States, however, Pink Floyd’s appeal appeared to have waned as the years went on.

Despite its success in the mainstream rock charts, ‘Take It Back’ reached a dismal 73 on the Hot 100. Ironically, the problem with the song might have been its attempts to court the mainstream, opting for a much more easy-listening sound in comparison to the material that originally made Pink Floyd such a legendary name in rock. Although the band would achieve further chart entries in the UK, with ‘High Hopes’, a 2012 reissue of ‘Wish You Were Here’, and their 2022 anti-war protest ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, ‘Take It Back’ marked the end of their time on the US Hot 100.