Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ Turns 45: Here Are 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Album

Ryan Berenz November 30, 11:00 am

The Wall, the 11th studio album by British prog rock band Pink Floyd, was released 45 years ago on November 30, 1979.

It was an ambitious, two-disc concept album that took the band musically into a more theatrical direction. It also contributed a lot to Roger Waters leaving the band over creative differences in 1985.

The Wall has sold more than 30 million copies, and is the second-best-selling Pink Floyd album (Dark Side of the Moon is No. 1) and the best-selling double album of all time.

To celebrate The Wall’s 45th birthday, here are five little-known facts about the album:

1“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” hit No. 1 on both shores

“Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone!” “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” was the only Pink Floyd song to reach No. 1 on the charts in both the U.K. and the U.S. Producer Bob Ezrin suggested adding elements of disco to the song to make it more favorable for radio play. It did not chart in South Africa, however, because the song was banned there.

223 students, 40 minutes and a place in music history

Engineer Nick Griffiths recorded a choir of 23 students at Islington Green School, close to the recording studio, for “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” The students had a week to practice and 40 minutes to perform. In exchange, each student received Pink Floyd concert tickets, an album and a single. Eventually, they were able to receive royalties under new copyright laws in the U.K.

3Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe did the album art

British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe poses ahead of the exhibition "Tear down the Wall" in Halle, eastern Germany on September 20, 2009. Scarfe gained fame as the art director of the music album "Te Wall" by British band Pink Floyd. The exhibition takes place from September 22 to November 15, 2009. AFP PHOTO DDP /JENS SCHLUETER GERMANY OUT

JENS SCHLUETER/DDP/AFP via Getty Images

Pink Floyd had some legendary album covers created by British design firm Hipgnosis, but the band went in a different direction for The Wall. After seeing the film Long Drawn-Out Trip: Sketches From Los Angeles, the band began working with cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe on various projects. Eventually, they turned to Scarfe to do the cover and interior art for The Wall album, and Scarfe’s animations appear throughout The Wall film.

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Remind

4“I wonder why he hung up?”

The edgy blues-rock “Young Lust” ends with Pink on the phone with an operator attempting to place a collect call to Pink’s wife. The operator reaches “Mrs. Floyd’s residence,” but a man answers the phone and hangs up. Pink realizes that his wife is cheating on him. To record this exchange, coproducer James Guthrie worked with a friend in London, Chris Fitzmorris, to receive the collect call. To keep the operator’s reaction authentic, they did not inform her that she was being recorded.

5The album and the movie soundtrack are not the same

There are several differences between the studio album and the movie’s soundtrack. “When the Tigers Broke Free,” a song about the death of Waters’ father in World War II, is in the film but wasn’t on the album. Some tracks from the album, like “Hey You,” were cut from the film, and others were re-recorded or extended. The movie soundtrack never got an official release, though enterprising Pink Floyd fans have put together their own soundtracks:

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