This Dark Side of the Moon trivia quiz has 80 free questions with answers about the Pink Floyd album that stayed on the Billboard 200 for the better part of two decades. The easy end covers what any fan knows: the year it came out, the prism on the sleeve, the singer who wailed through The Great Gig in the Sky, the film people sync it with and the single that gave the band its first American hit. From there it goes into how the record was actually made: the garden shed where the demos were cut, the coins thrown into a pottery-studio mixing bowl, the clocks recorded in an antique shop, the synthesiser that runs On the Run, the flashcard interviews with roadies and a doorman, the Beatle whose answers were cut, the press launch the band boycotted, the working titles that came and went, and the arguments over the mix. The expert questions reach into chart statistics, tribute albums, a Mars rover, an Olympic opening ceremony and a flight announcement to Lagos. Every answer was checked against the album's Wikipedia article and the articles for its individual tracks, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was The Dark Side of the Moon released?
1973
It came out in the US on 1 March and in the UK on 16 March, more than a year after the band had first played the whole suite live.
Q 02The prism sleeve was designed by which design studio, which had also done the band's cow and ear covers?
Hipgnosis
Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell offered seven designs; all four members pointed at the prism.
Q 03'Money', the band's first US hit, peaked at which position on the Billboard Hot 100?
13
Cash Box had it three places higher, at number 10; the single edit chopped out most of the sax and guitar solos.
Q 04Most of 'Money' is written in which unusual time signature?
7/4
Waters wrote the riff on an acoustic guitar and said the odd meter suited the song's bluesy feel; the guitar solo switches to a straight 4/4.
Q 05Which saxophonist, an old friend of David Gilmour, was booked to play on the album?
Dick Parry
The band did not know many other musicians, so they simply asked someone Gilmour knew; he later played on Wish You Were Here too.
Q 06Which session singer improvised the wordless vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'?
Clare Torry
She was asked to express emotion rather than sing words, did it in a few takes on a Sunday night, and left thinking it would be cut.
Q 07How much was the 'Great Gig in the Sky' vocalist paid for her session in 1973?
£30
It was the standard flat fee for a Sunday; she only learned she was on the record when she saw her name in the credits in a shop.
Q 08After a 2004 lawsuit, 'The Great Gig in the Sky' is credited jointly to the vocalist and which band member?
Richard Wright
The keyboardist's chord sequence began life as an organ instrumental with Bible readings and Malcolm Muggeridge speeches over the top.
Q 09Which EMI staff engineer, later famous for his own Project, engineered the album?
Alan Parsons
He earned a Grammy nomination for the engineering and later grumbled that the band 'made untold millions and a lot of the people involved in the record didn't'.
Q 10The album's engineer had earlier been assistant tape operator on which 1970 Pink Floyd album?
Atom Heart Mother
He had also worked as a recording engineer on the Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be.
Q 11The album's initial run on the Billboard 200 lasted how many nonconsecutive weeks, from 1973 to 1988?
736
It included one unbroken stretch of 593 weeks, and it went back on the chart in 2009 once catalogue titles were allowed again.
Q 12By 2013 the album had sold roughly how many copies worldwide?
45 million
That made it the best-selling album of the 1970s and the fourth-best-selling album ever, and it lifted record sales across the whole industry.
Q 13Which band member received a rare solo writing credit for the opening sound collage 'Speak to Me'?
Nick Mason
Wright and Waters later said the credit was a gift to give the drummer some publishing income, which Waters came to regret after leaving the band.
Q 21Which drums dominate the two-minute passage after the clocks in 'Time'?
Rototoms
The band tried tiny tuned boobams too, but the tunable rototoms gave the best effect over Waters's muted-bass tick-tock.
Q 22'Time' ends with a one-minute reprise of which earlier track?
Breathe
The reprise swaps in Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer piano for the Hammond and Rhodes of the original.
Q 23Which two members share the lead vocal on 'Time'?
Gilmour and Wright
It was the keyboardist's last lead vocal until 'Wearing the Inside Out' on 1994's The Division Bell.
Q 14Which track grew out of 'The Violent Sequence', a piano piece written for the film Zabriskie Point?
Us and Them
Its 7:49 running time makes it the longest track on the album.
Q 15Antonioni rejected 'The Violent Sequence' as too sad because it made him think of what?
Church
He wanted something more like 'Careful with That Axe, Eugene', so the piece sat on the shelf for three years.
Q 16Under what working title was 'The Great Gig in the Sky' performed live in early 1972?
The Mortality Sequence
At that stage it was an organ instrumental with Bible readings; NASA astronaut chatter was among the effects tried and rejected.
Q 17The pulsing sequence of 'On the Run' was built by entering eight notes into which synth?
EMS Synthi AKS
Even the hi-hat sound came out of the synth, and it all had to be played live because there was no way to sync two performances.
Q 18Before the album's release, 'On the Run' was replaced on stage by which guitar-and-Wurlitzer jam?
The Travel Sequence
A studio version of the jam was recorded but judged not good enough and stayed unreleased until 2011.
Q 19'On the Run' evokes the anxiety of travel, and in particular which fear of the band's keyboardist?
Flying
An airport announcement plays 27 seconds in, and the piece ends with the sound of the presumed aircraft exploding.
Q 20Where were the ticking and chiming clocks that open 'Time' recorded?
An antique clock shop
The engineer had taped each timepiece separately as a quadraphonic test, not for the album, and the band said 'Stick it on!'
Q 24What did the band call 'Brain Damage' during live performances and recording sessions?
Lunatic
Earlier still, while making Meddle in 1971, Waters had called the song 'The Dark Side of the Moon', a title that migrated to the whole album.
Q 25The themes of madness on the album were inspired in part by the decline of which former member?
Syd Barrett
He had left in 1968 and would famously wander into the studio unrecognised during the Wish You Were Here sessions in 1975.
Q 26Who sings lead vocal on 'Brain Damage'?
Roger Waters
Gilmour actively encouraged him to sing it despite his lack of confidence in his own voice; Gilmour took the lead himself on the 1994 tour.
Q 27What was the job of Gerry O'Driscoll, whose spoken answers about dying and the moon appear on the album?
Doorman
His unused follow-up line was that the only thing that makes it look light is the sun; the band felt anything after his first answer would be an anticlimax.
Q 28Which famous couple's answers to Roger Waters's flashcard questions were cut for 'trying too hard to be funny'?
Paul and Linda McCartney
They were next door recording Red Rose Speedway; their Wings bandmate Henry McCullough did make the cut.
Q 29Which Wings guitarist contributed the spoken line about being really drunk at the time?
Henry McCullough
He was in the building because Wings were recording next door in November 1972.
Q 30The repeated manic laughter heard on the album was recorded by which member of the band's crew?
Road manager Peter Watts
His daughter Naomi Watts became a Hollywood star; his second wife supplied the line about a geezer cruising for a bruising.