Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd

Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. Released on November 5, 2001 in the UK and November 6 in the U.S. It reached #2 on The Billboard 200 in November, 2001. It went Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum in December of 2001 in the U.S. It was recently listed as being certified Triple Platinum (three million copies sold) in the U.S.

This is the first album released on CD that includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which appeared in the film version of The Wall. (The song later appeared on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut.)

The compilation spans the career of Pink Floyd from their first single "Arnold Layne" in 1967, through to "High Hopes", the final track from their 1994 studio album The Division Bell. Each of the twenty-six tracks non-chronologically segues from one to the next with no break in the music (apart from a disc switch after thirteen tracks), courtesy of longtime producer-engineer James Guthrie. This was done to help recreate the concept-album feel of the band's mid-period work. All twenty-six tracks were newly remastered specifically for this compilation.

The album is, at times, criticised by hardcore Pink Floyd fans for its lack of material from Music From The Film More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Obscured By Clouds, as well as for its shortened versions of "Echoes", "Marooned", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" "Sheep" and "High Hopes". It can be argued, however, that the compilation is geared more towards casual and new fans of the band, rather than hardcore fans who already own all of Pink Floyd's albums. Echoes lacks many of the lesser-known classics that fans have come to love through the years, and is also devoid of any new material that many bands choose to attach to a 'best of' collection.

The album's artwork is a collage of dozens of well-known Pink Floyd images, including screenshots from music videos, LP artwork and single artwork. On the front cover alone there is, among other things, the diver, businessman and blowing veil from Wish You Were Here, the rower and lake from The Rower (a film shown during the 1994 tours), a porcelain pig and cow from Animals and Atom Heart Mother, The Division Bell heads in miniature, a plane in reference to "Learning To Fly" and a picture of the ear underwater from Meddle.

Disc One

 * 1) "Astronomy Domine" – 4:10 (from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn)
 * 2) "See Emily Play" – 2:47 (non-album single; appears on Relics)
 * 3) "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" – 1:38 (from The Wall)
 * 4) "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" – 4:01 (from The Wall)
 * 5) "Echoes" – 16:30 (abridged) (from Meddle)
 * 6) "Hey You" – 4:39 (from The Wall)
 * 7) "Marooned" – 2:02 (abridged) (from The Division Bell)
 * 8) "The Great Gig in the Sky" – 4:39 (from The Dark Side Of The Moon)
 * 9) "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" – 5:20 (from A Saucerful Of Secrets)
 * 10) "Money" – 6:29 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
 * 11) "Keep Talking" – 5:57 (from The Division Bell)
 * 12) "Sheep" – 9:46 (abridged) (from Animals)
 * 13) "Sorrow" – 8:45 (from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason)

Disc Two

 * 1) "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" – 17:32 (Combined parts 1-7 with some guitar solos edited - from Wish You Were Here)
 * 2) "Time" – 6:48 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
 * 3) "The Fletcher Memorial Home" – 4:07 (from The Final Cut)
 * 4) "Comfortably Numb" – 6:53 (Lengthened to include part of "Bring the Boys Back Home" - from The Wall)
 * 5) "When the Tigers Broke Free" – 3:42 (from the film version of The Wall, also appears on 2004 remaster of The Final Cut)
 * 6) "One of These Days" – 5:14 (from Meddle)
 * 7) "Us and Them" – 7:51 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
 * 8) "Learning to Fly" – 4:50 (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
 * 9) "Arnold Layne" – 2:52 (non-album single; appears on Relics)
 * 10) "Wish You Were Here" – 5:20 (from Wish You Were Here)
 * 11) "Jugband Blues" – 2:56 (from A Saucerful of Secrets)
 * 12) "High Hopes" – 6:59 (abridged) (from The Division Bell)
 * 13) "Bike" – 3:24 (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)