Pink Floyd

Formed in London in 1965, Pink Floyd are one of the best-selling bands in history, and they got there almost without hit singles. For more than a decade they barely released any, building their name on whole albums instead of three-minute bursts. The result: in their entire career, exactly one No. 1 single, “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” in 1980. A band that defined the album era, with a single chart-topper to its name.

The name itself is a fossil. Syd Barrett, the band’s first frontman and main songwriter, stitched it together from two American bluesmen in his record collection; Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Barrett wrote the early hits and fronted the 1967 debut, then left in 1968, his mind unravelling, before any of the records most people now picture when they hear “Pink Floyd” existed. Waters, Mason, Wright and the later arrival David Gilmour carried it from there into The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall.

So the man who named the band and gave it its first voice was gone before it became the thing the world remembers. Press into any of it and you’ll find that gap.