The Best of the Pink Floyd

The Best of the Pink Floyd, also issued as Masters of Rock, is a compilation album of early Pink Floyd music, concentrating on singles and album tracks from 1967 to 1968. Later editions titled Masters of Rock were released in 1974 in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, to capitalise on the success of The Dark Side of the Moon. It is one of a series of budget EMI compilations with identical titles, each volume for a different artist. Two different sleeve designs were used: one (by Herman Baas) based on the picture from the centre of the album sleeve for Meddle, with Syd Barrett's face superimposed over the original photo of David Gilmour, who had not yet joined the band during most of the period covered by the album; and a later edition with the title filling the front cover. The latter edition is titled Masters of Rock, Volume 1; subsequent volumes of Masters of Rock featured other artists. The Best of edition was only issued in mono, while Masters of Rock was notable for containing the first stereo release of "Apples and Oranges". The album was also the only LP source of "It Would Be So Nice" prior to the era of CD re-issues and compilations. The version of "It Would Be So Nice" appearing on this album is the altered version made for airplay, with lyrics mentioning "the Daily Standard" in place of "the Evening Standard". Although Masters of Rock uses the stereo mix of "Paintbox" which previously appeared on Relics in 1971, "Julia Dream" is the original mono mix which is significantly different from, and longer than the Relics stereo mix. Counterfeit editions with different track lists exist. Any edition with a track list that does not match the list shown here, is a counterfeit.