Pink Floyd are one of the most iconic and influential bands in the history of rock — immersive, atmospheric and emotionally vast, with a catalogue that still sounds like nothing else. Here is our fellow fan’s ranking of their finest songs.

The short version

If you only hear a few, make them “Comfortably Numb”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, “Wish You Were Here” and “Echoes” — the iconic guitar epic, the heartbroken tribute, the timeless ballad and the side-long masterpiece. The full ranking is below.

From the cosmos to the concept album

Formed in London in 1965, Pink Floyd began as Syd Barrett’s whimsical psychedelic pioneers and grew, after his departure in 1968, into the most ambitious band of their age. Under Roger Waters and David Gilmour they made a run of concept albums — The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall — that rank among the best-selling and most beloved in history, built on Gilmour’s soaring guitar, Richard Wright’s atmospheric keyboards and Waters’s searching, often angry words. Few bands have ever sounded so vast. These fifteen songs are our pick of the very best.

How we ranked them

This is one fan’s order, weighing songwriting, atmosphere, ambition and lasting impact across their whole career. The facts are accurate; the order is a starting point for the debate.

The essential six

At the top sits “Comfortably Numb” (1979), home to perhaps the most beloved guitar solo in all of rock, alongside “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (1975), the band’s sprawling, heartbroken tribute to their lost founder. With them stand “Wish You Were Here” (1975), one of the greatest rock ballads ever written; “Echoes” (1971), a twenty-three-minute epic that fills an entire album side; “Time” (1973), Waters’s clear-eyed meditation on life slipping away; and “Money” (1973), their most unlikely hit, in 7/4 no less.

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Reliably great

The next tier is essential too. “Us and Them” (1973) is the gorgeous, mournful heart of Dark Side; “Dogs” (1977) is a seventeen-minute Animals epic; “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” (1979) gave them their only number one single; “Hey You” (1979) is one of The Wall’s most affecting moments; and “Welcome to the Machine” (1975) is a chilling, synth-driven indictment of the music business.

Deeper cuts

For the dedicated, these reward repeat listens. “One of These Days” (1971) is a thunderous, near-instrumental from Meddle; “The Great Gig in the Sky” (1973) features one of the most extraordinary wordless vocals ever recorded; “Astronomy Domine” (1967) is Syd Barrett’s psychedelic calling card; and “High Hopes” (1994) is the elegiac highlight of their final, Waters-free era.

Every song at a glance

All fifteen songs, in chronological order — each linked to the album it comes from, so you can hear it in context.

Where to start

Begin with “Wish You Were Here” — gentle, beautiful and instantly familiar. From there, “Comfortably Numb” and “Time” show their dramatic side, before “Echoes” opens up their full immersive ambition.

The players

Pink Floyd grew from the songs of founder Syd Barrett, the troubled genius who led the early psychedelic band before leaving in 1968 — an absence that quietly haunts much of their later work. The classic line-up was Roger Waters on bass and vocals, increasingly the band’s conceptual mastermind; David Gilmour on guitar and vocals; Richard Wright on keyboards; and Nick Mason on drums. Waters left after a bitter split in 1985, and Gilmour, Wright and Mason carried on. The band lost both Barrett, in 2006, and Wright, in 2008.

Why they still matter

Few bands have shaped the sound and scale of progressive rock like Pink Floyd. Their immersive, atmospheric music is the template for everything from the space rock of Hawkwind to the modern prog of Porcupine Tree, and they remain one of the best-selling and most beloved acts of all time. Alongside fellow travellers like King Crimson and Tangerine Dream, they expanded what rock could be. Their best songs are simply timeless.

Go deeper

Keep exploring: rank their records with our guide to the best Pink Floyd albums, find an entry point with where to start with Pink Floyd, or dig into the underrated Pink Floyd albums. You can also place them in the bigger picture with the best progressive rock songs of all time.

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