- - '70s Rock Album Returns to No. 1 After 50 Years

Isabella TorregianiDecember 20, 2025 at 1:48 AM

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Decades after its original release, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on the U.K. Albums Chart. The 50th anniversary edition has helped the legendary album break The Beatles’ record for the longest gap between chart-topping albums.

The deluxe edition,Wish You Were Here 50, is available in multiple formats and features a Dolby Atmos mix along with 25 bonus tracks. Fans will also find rare, previously unreleased demos and alternate versions of classics like “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and the album’s title track.

This latest achievement makes it Pink Floyd’s second No. 1 album of 2025. Earlier this year, the live recording Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, a performance from 1971, also reached the top of the chart.

While the band has never had a Christmas No. 1 album before, they did secure the Christmas No. 1 single in 1979 with “Another Brick in the Wall.”

David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s guitarist, shared his excitement on Instagram with a photo of him toasting at a pub, captioned, “Raising a glass to the wonderful news that Wish You Were Here is the UK’s Christmas Number 1 album.”

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With its return to No. 1 exactly 50 years after first topping the chart in 1975, Wish You Were Here now holds the record for the longest gap between No. 1 albums on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.

Before this, The Beatles’ Abbey Road held the record, taking just under 50 years between its No. 1 appearances in 1969 and 2019.

Pink Floyd isn’t just topping the charts with Wish You Were Here. Their 1973 masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon, featuring hits like “Money” and “The Great Gig in the Sky,” celebrated 989 weeks on the Billboard 200 this past June.

With more than 45 million copies sold globally, it remains one of the best-selling albums of all time — outpacing legendary records including The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Michael Jackson’s Bad.

This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”