News

As we predicted a few weeks ago, Pink Floyd’s venerable “Dark Side of the Moon” album returned to the Billboard 200 chart this week, after a change in the magazine’s methodology forced it off the list in 1988.

“Dark Side” returned for its 742nd week on the chart, appearing at #189. Its last week on the chart was Oct. 8, 1988.

Billboard recently began basing its chart on Nielsen SoundScan sales data, an all-inclusive list that disregards release date. This change was responsible for the album’s return. (Read more about the change in our previous post.)

The album, which debuted on the chart March 17, 1973, is the longest charting album in Billboard history — by far:

1. “Dark Side of the Moon,” Pink Floyd (1973), 742 weeks
2. “Johnny’s Greatest Hits,” Johnny Mathis (1958), 490 weeks
3. “My Fair Lady,” Original Cast (1956), 480 weeks
4. “Highlights From the Phantom of the Opera,” Original Cast (1990), 331 weeks
5. “Tapestry,” Carole King (1971), 302 weeks

Rare footage of Pink Floyd performing during a 1967 TV broadcast of “Top of the Pops” has recently been discovered in an anonymous collector’s stash by archivist Bill Harrison.

The heavily damaged one-inch reel-to-reel tape is from the July 6 and 27, 1967, broadcasts of the British television show. It shows the band, with Syd Barrett, performing “See Emily Play.”

The tape has been restored and will be shown at the British Film Institute (BFI) South Bank’s “Missing Believed Wiped” event to be held Jan. 9 in London. The performance hasn’t been seen since its original broadcast more than 40 years ago.

BFI’s Dick Fiddy told Mojo magazine, ”We gave the tape to the archive boffins. It was in a dreadful condition, with the oxide falling off. The best possible picture quality was recovered.”

BFI curator Steve Bryant said, “This is an enormously significant discovery that will generate huge interest amongst music fans all over the world, even though the surviving material is in poor condition.

“Footage of Pink Floyd from this era is extremely rare.”

BBC footage from the 1960s and ’70s is hard to find because the network often recorded over old tape or simply threw it out.