• Writer: Roger Waters and David Gilmour
• Producer: Pink Floyd
• Recorded: January-July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios in London
• Released: September 1975
• Players:
  David Gilmour — vocals, guitar
  Roger Waters — bass
  Rick Wright — keyboards
  Nick Mason — drums
  Stephane Grappelli — violin
• Album: Wish You Were Here (Columbia, 1975)
• Also On:
  A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (Columbia, 1981)
  The Delicate Sound Of Thunder (Columbia, 1988)
  Shine On (Columbia, 1992)
  Pulse (Columbia, 1995)
  Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd (Capitol, 2001)
• “Wish You Were Here” is a rare instance in Pink Floyd‘s history when the lyrics for a song were written before the music.
• Guitarist David Gilmour sang lead on the song.
• “Wish You Were Here” transitions from “Have A Cigar” with the sound of a cheap transistor radio, which was created by simultaneously moving several sliders on the mixing desk.
• Famed jazz and classical violinist Stephane Grappelli was used because he happened to be at Abbey Road at the same time, working on another recording. His contribution to the song — a few bars towards the end, for which he was paid 300 British pounds — was uncredited on the album.
• The snippet of orchestral music included in “Wish You Were Here” came from Tchaikovsky‘s Fourth Symphony.
• During the sessions for the Wish You Were Here album, Pink Floyd co-founder and guitarist Syd Barrett — who was booted from the band in 1968 due to drug-induced emotional problems — showed up unannounced. The bandmembers hadn’t seen him in several years, and they didn’t immediately recognize him. Ironically, at the time, the group was recording the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” which was inspired by Barrett.
• The recording of the album was also made more difficult by personal problems within the band, as singer-bassist Roger Waters and drummer Nick Mason were both going through divorces.
• Gilmour and keyboardist Rick Wright, however, cite this as their favorite Pink Floyd album.
• Shortly after Pink Floyd finished recording the album, they headlined the Knebworth Festival in England, using quadraphonic sound and a replica of a Spitfire airplane that crashed into the stage as part of the show.

FAST FORWARD:

• Pink Floyd was the subject of a nasty legal battle between its members in the late ’80s. After Waters announced that he quit the band in December 1985, Gilmour, Mason and Wright announced that they would carry on using the name. Waters sued the trio in an attempt to keep it from touring and recording as Pink Floyd, but was unsuccessful.
• The quartet did reunite for the London Live 8 concert in July of 2005.
• Pink Floyd last toured the world in 1994, in support of its album The Division Bell.
• Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Roger Waters and David Gilmour have recently both been touring, playing solo material and Pink Floyd classics..