THE BEST OF THE PINK FLOYD

I recall buying this old LP in the 1980's from a place called the Record Cellar, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time I had been collecting anything I could possibly find from Pink Floyd and when I came across this "best of" collection, I noticed that it had songs on it I had never heard before, except for some from the Relics release. I later found out that this collection was made up of mostly music from singles that were released in the late 1960's. These were incredibly hard to find back in the 1980's, so I cherished this album until the release of their 1992 boxset "Shine On." To my knowledge, this LP was only released in the Netherlands and is only missing Point Me At the Sky.

Since Pink Floyd's 1960's singles are more readily available in newer formats (online or CD), this 1970 LP is basically a collectible nowadays. The music is, as you might guess, in a similar vein as their debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. They are all short, psychedelic-pop songs, chiefly of Syd Barrett's writing. It includes their famous Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, plus the Beatlesque Wright-penned It Would Be So Nice and Waters' chilling Julia Dream, among others. Although Gilmour is pictured on the cover, he only briefly makes appearances on the few post-Barrett songs on this compilation.

Musically, Pink Floyd would make a more significantly important mark on progressive rock later in the 1970's. This, in comparison to their later work, is more or less of value to historians of the group and of late 1960's psychedelia and proto-prog. Further, the group made more interesting work than the singles they released, and this can be found on their studio albums of the period. Thus, I can only recommend to collectors and completionists. Therefore, although I still cherish owning this, it only merits two stars.

This is insanity ! How dare this be called a "Best Of" ? If you take out their two hit-singles "Arnold Layne" (Nr. 20 or 28 according to the sources) and "See Emily Play" (Nr. 6) both in the UK charts and "Mathilda Mother" there's nothing from the other world here. I do not have this album as such but I know all the numbers.

WHAT ANNOYS ME THE MOST IS THAT THIS COMPILATION IS MADE OF ALMOST SYD'S WORK (SEVEN OUT OF 10 SONGS) AND THAT HE IS NOT EVEN FEATURED ON THE FRONT COVER !

This scandalous "thing" will be reedited in 1974 with another cover still with Syd unfeatured under the title of : "Masters Of Rocks".

I know how David and Roger were close to Syd, so how could have they accepted such a thing ? I have no clue. This should deserve zero star for this scandalous approach, but since it is not possible I will raise my rating to one star.

I will post the same review for "Masters Of Rocks" not to count one more review but only with the purpose that this fact will have more exposure amongst Floyd fans.

RIP Syd.

The Best of The Pink Floyd was I believe the first "greatest hits" compilation for the band, predating the Relics compilation. It was produced in the Netherlands, but I'm uncertain as to how far it was distributed. Probably in western Europe, possibly the U.K.? I picked it up in the 1980s in a used record shop and for me it was an enjoyment because it contained many of the B-sides off their 1960s singles, music that wasn't available on Relics or that awful Works album from 1983.

However, now that it's the 21st century and all the material on this album is readily available elsewhere, this first compilation is really just a collectible that will likely never see the light of day as a CD re-release. Because of this and the fact that their studio albums of the time had much better material, I can only give this two stars. For collectors only.

Here we go with the variation of Pink Floyd's greatest Barret songs. There are countless variations on these songs. It is a rare album coming from 1970 with no frills sleeve that does not even bother to feature Barret on the cover which is unforgivable given the material. The songs are identical to the Masters of Rock Vol 1 album that came out in better packaging in 1974. Chapter 24, Mathilda Mother, come from the debut, and then Arnold Layne, Candy And A Current Bun and The Scarecrow are perhaps the most well known from the follow up.

Apples and Oranges was a drawcard at the time as it was hard to find but since has appeared on many compilations such as the Shine On boxset. The other songs are well known and not rare at all such as Julia dream and See Emily Play.

I cannot believe the band thought this was their best, but it was 1970 so all is forgiven. Collectors need only apply.