FROM a premier psychedelic act in the sixties to one of rock and roll's biggest groups in the seventies and eighties, Pink Floyd has enjoyed a phenomenally successful career. The band created one of the music industry's biggest-selling recordings of all time in 1973's Dark Side of the Moon (twenty-five million sold worldwide at last count, and it stayed a record 566 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 chart). Yet Dark Side was but one of several No. 1 records in the U.K. and U.S. for Pink Floyd, as the group successfully merged progressive, ambient, and blues influences into its own highly distinctive blend of futuristic rock.

Formed in 1964 at a London architectural school by bassist-songwriter Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist Richard Wright, Pink Floyd didn't really develop a vision or a substantial reputation until guitarist Syd Barrett joined later that year and renamed the fledgling group the Pink Floyd Sound after two American bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). Barrett--a legendary pop persona and one of rock and roll's true iconoclasts--lasted only four years with the band, but he provided Pink Floyd with much of its early psychedelic material and unpredictable image.

Early Barrett-penned singles like "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne" were short, intriguing slices of archetypal psychedelia, while longer, more whimsical pieces like the classic "Interstellar Overdrive" became the norm as the band's career progressed, and drugs captured Barrett's imagination. Barrett departed Pink Floyd in 1968 with drug problems after writing most of their noteworthy debut, Piper at the Gates of Dawn. He was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour, who would grow to become a formidable stylist in his own right. Sadly, following a 1974 solo album, Barrett fell almost completely out of sight, and was reported to be institutionalized.

Following Barrett's departure, Pink Floyd released several mediocre records and film soundtracks in the late sixties. It wasn't until 1971's Meddle, an album of evocative jams and soon-to-be-trademark ethereal numbers, that the band finally arrived at their new sonic destination. In Barrett's absence, Waters had become the primary songwriter and his skills grew exponentially; in a short two years, the intriguing but unfocused sound of Meddle had blossomed into Dark Side of the Moon, the decade's gloomy pop masterwork. Featuring such classic-rock staples as "Money" and "Time," Dark Side was a tremendous success both critically and commercially, though many consider it to be one of the most caustic records of all time. It also helped launch the career of Alan Parsons, who engineered the album, and would later front his own successful band, the Alan Parsons Project.

Pink Floyd followed up Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here (1975), a touching and complex concept album that paid tribute to Barrett. It too topped the charts in both the U.S. and U.K. Animals (1977) found Waters' material becoming ever more vitriolic, offering a seething perspective on modern society. Such indictments would manifest themselves most effectively on 1979's The Wall, a double-disc rumination on the travails of a rock star. In Waters' mind, "the wall" was the mental barrier he had to build between himself and his fans in order to perform. The band took that concept literally in lavishly produced concerts in four cities in 1980 and 1981, during which they performed The Wall in its entirety as a giant physical wall was being erected, brick by brick, between themselves and the audience. The album, which somewhat surprisingly yielded a hit single (the chart- topping "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II," with its controversial "We don't need no education" chorus), was later made into a film directed by Alan Parker and starring Bob Geldof.

In 1982, Pink Floyd began to deteriorate. Wright left due to an apparent conflict with Waters, and the next year, after releasing The Final Cut (which was rumored to be a Waters solo album in all but name), Waters departed bitterly after his relationship with Gilmour fell apart. In 1984, Waters released The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, Wright issued Identity, and Gilmour About Face. A year later, Mason released Profiles. All four solo albums were relatively unremarkable. In time, Mason and Gilmour elected to continue as Pink Floyd, but ran into legal challenges from Waters in 1986 over rights to the band's name. The suit failed, and in 1987 the pair, now rejoined by Wright, issued A Momentary Lapse of Reason as Pink Floyd and set out on a massive world tour that would eventually gross over $30 million. Waters released his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S., the same year, but it proved no match for Momentary Lapse, which went to No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, while K.A.O.S. peaked at No. 50. Waters attempted to reclaim a bit of the Pink Floyd name in July of 1990 by staging a star-studded (if you can call the likes of Thomas Dolby, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, and the Hooters stars) live performance of The Wall at the foot of the Berlin Wall. The resulting double-CD also failed to sell. Waters' third solo album, Amused to Death, came out in 1992, and at the time, even his record company conceded that album could be a multi- platinum smash if it only had the Pink Floyd name on it.

Two years later, the active Pink Floyd--still Wright, Gilmour and Mason--released The Division Bell, featuring songs Gilmour wrote with his ex-journalist girlfriend Polly Samson. The album soared to No. 1 in the U.S. only two weeks after its release. Later the same year, the band embarked on another spectacular tour, which would later be documented by another chart-topping record, Pulse. The two-CD live album notably featured the new Pink Floyd lineup performing 1973's Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety. In early 1997, rumors of another Pink Floyd tour surfaced, and with them came the now-familiar speculation that Waters would be rejoining his former bandmates this time around. Fans have been hoping for such a reunion for years, but regardless of Waters' involvement, time has shown that the Pink Floyd name has the power to attract huge audiences regardless of the players actually taking the stage.