Any list of the best David Gilmour solos starts from the same problem: there are too many good ones, and the polls keep returning to the same handful. This ranking is mine, and I have built it on what can be checked rather than on adjectives: the album, the year and the line-up behind each solo, how it was recorded where Gilmour or the band have explained it, and what critics, polls and awards have said about it. Nine come from Pink Floyd, one from his solo career. The sound itself I leave to your ears.

1. “Comfortably Numb” — The Wall (1979)

The obvious number one, and the one the polls agree on. The song has two Gilmour solos, the second of which closes it; both were assembled from the best phrases of “five or six” complete takes, as Gilmour has explained. Rolling Stone’s staff list of the 100 greatest guitar solos places it fourth, Guitar World readers voted it third in 2022, and Planet Rock listeners voted it the greatest guitar solo of all time in 2006. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. The full story, from Gilmour’s 1978 demo to the live versions, is in my guide to the Comfortably Numb solo.

2. “Echoes” — Meddle (1971)

The side-long piece that closes Meddle runs over twenty-three minutes and is credited to all four members, with Gilmour and Wright sharing the vocals. Its most famous performance is on film: the band played it in the empty Roman amphitheatre for Live at Pompeii (1972). Far Out, in its ranking of Gilmour’s Pink Floyd solos, placed it second only to “Comfortably Numb”. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

3. “Time” — The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

On The Dark Side of the Moon the solo in “Time” belongs to a song credited to all four members, with lyrics by Waters. It was singled out from the start: Loyd Grossman’s review of the album for Rolling Stone in 1973 praised “a powerful guitar solo by David Gilmour”. Louder later ranked the song fifth among the 50 greatest Pink Floyd songs, and Gilmour has played it on every one of his solo tours since Pink Floyd’s Division Bell tour. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

4. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” — Wish You Were Here (1975)

The nine-part suite that opens and closes Wish You Were Here, written about the band’s founding member Syd Barrett, begins with a long instrumental introduction and carries the four-note guitar motif that everyone remembers; Guitar World cites that motif as one of the defining examples of Gilmour’s touch. The suite is credited to Gilmour, Waters and Wright. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

5. “Dogs” — Animals (1977)

The longest track on Animals, at around seventeen minutes, and one of the few from the Waters years with a Gilmour co-writing credit: he shares the writing credit with Waters and sings part of it. It holds several of his solos rather than one, spread across the piece. It is a regular choice when fans and musicians list his best playing; in Louder’s feature on the 30 greatest Gilmour performances, chosen by other musicians, it is one of the long tracks singled out. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

6. “Money” — The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

The song is in 7/4, but the band wrote a 4/4 progression for the guitar solo, which Gilmour played in three sections, each recorded separately: the first double-tracked with echo, the second recorded completely dry, the third on a custom Lewis guitar with twenty-four frets. The dry middle section was his decision – “It was my idea to break down and become dry and empty”, he told Guitar World in 1993. Released as a single, “Money” reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band’s first American hit. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

7. “Marooned” — The Division Bell (1994)

The only Pink Floyd recording ever to win a Grammy: Best Rock Instrumental Performance, in 1995. It was written by Gilmour and Wright for The Division Bell, and Gilmour has said that “pretty much” all of it was improvised, taken from three or four passes with the best parts kept from each. Line-up: Gilmour, Wright and Mason, the three-piece Pink Floyd of the 1990s.

8. “High Hopes” — The Division Bell (1994)

The closing track of The Division Bell, with music by Gilmour and lyrics by Gilmour and Polly Samson; the album title itself was taken from one of its lines. It ends with an extended lap steel guitar solo, which Total Guitar describes as lasting over two minutes, and Gilmour has played it on his solo tours ever since, from Remember That Night to Live at Pompeii. Line-up: Gilmour, Wright and Mason.

9. “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” — The Wall (1979)

Pink Floyd’s biggest hit single, number one in both Britain and the United States, is also the place where the widest audience has heard a Gilmour solo, which follows the famous children’s chorus. According to Guitar World, it was played on the Stratocaster Gilmour calls his “Number One”, the guitar with serial number 0001. Line-up: Pink Floyd’s classic line-up: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.

10. “On an Island” — On an Island (2006)

The title track of Gilmour’s third solo album, which went to number one in Britain, with David Crosby and Graham Nash on harmony vocals and Richard Wright among the guests. It is here as the solo that shows the style carrying on outside the band. For the whole of his solo catalogue, Guitar World’s guide to his solo albums is a good companion.

Just outside the ten

Several solos could have taken the last places: the solos on “Sorrow”, from A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987); “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” on Animals; “Coming Back to Life” on The Division Bell. All three are regular choices when fans compile their own lists.

Go deeper

For the band’s catalogue, start with the Pink Floyd band guide, the best Pink Floyd albums, the best Pink Floyd songs and where to start with Pink Floyd. For guitar solos across the genre, see the best prog rock guitar solos of all time and my countdown of the best progressive rock guitarists, or browse the prog musicians hub. The full story of British progressive rock, Pink Floyd included, is told in Beyond the Thames, the second book in my Beyond the Sound series.

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