Why Pink Floyd's Use of Prominent Session Musicians Peaked on Dark Side of the Moon

Clare Torry’s wailing, wordless vocal on “The Great Gig in the Sky” and Dick Parry’s smoky saxophone solos on “Money” and “Us and Them” gave The Dark Side of the Moon a soul-jazz warmth that Pink Floyd had never touched before. Torry was originally asked to just hum a melody; she improvised an entire emotional arc, and the band kept nearly all of it. Parry, a childhood friend of keyboardist Richard Wright, brought a breathy, almost Coltrane-like tension that cut through the clinical tape loops and synth pads. Together, they made the album feel human in a way the band’s earlier space-rock didn’t.

After Dark Side, Pink Floyd only pulled in outside session players