Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd album)

Wish You Were Here is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 12 September 1975 through Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States through Columbia Records, as their first album for the label. Based on material Pink Floyd composed while performing in Europe, Wish You Were Here was recorded over numerous sessions throughout 1975 at EMI Studios in London.

The lyrics express longing, alienation, and sardonic criticism of the music industry. The bulk of the album is taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to Syd Barrett, a Pink Floyd co-founder who had left seven years earlier due to his deteriorating mental health; Barrett coincidentally visited the studio during recording. As with their previous release, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd employed studio effects and synthesisers. Guest singers included Roy Harper, who sang lead on "Have a Cigar", and Venetta Fields, who sang backing vocals on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". To promote the album, Pink Floyd released the double A-side single "Have a Cigar" / "Welcome to the Machine".

Wish You Were Here topped charts in several countries, including the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200. It was certified gold in the UK and US in its year of release, and by 2004, it had sold an estimated 13 million copies worldwide. Upon release, it received mixed reviews from critics, who found its music "uninspiring" and "inferior" to the group's previous work. However, it has later been acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of the 1970s and of all time, with Rolling Stone ranking it number 264 in their 2020 revision of their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Keyboardist Richard Wright, drummer Nick Mason, and guitarist David Gilmour have cited it as their favourite Pink Floyd album, while bassist Roger Waters called it their "most complete" album.