As Pink Floyd had never employed a publicist and kept themselves distant from the press, their relationship with the media began to sour.

The decision to shroud the cover in black plastic was not popular with the band's US record company, Columbia Records, which insisted that it be changed but was over-ruled.

All your childhood dreams had been sort of realised and we had the biggest selling records in the world and all the things you got into it for. It was certified six times platinum on 16 May 1997, [54] and by 2004 had sold an estimated 13million copies worldwide. The opening bars of "Wish You Were Here" were recorded from Gilmour's car radio, with somebody turning the dial (the classical music heard is the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony).

It has a multi-part track as a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had quit the group for 7 years because of a mental breakdown. It's partially digital remastered (original tape -> DSD conversion -> lacquer cut, by same original people). It has retrospectively received critical acclaim, hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time and one of the band's finest works.The concept behind "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" suggested the use of a handshake (an often empty gesture), and George Hardie designed a sticker containing the album's logo of two mechanical hands engaged in a handshake, to be placed on the opaque sleeve (the mechanical handshake logo would also appear on the labels of the vinyl album this time in a black and blue background). At one point he left the stage, but the band were able to continue with a less sensitive keyboard, a piano and a simpler light show. Roy Harper, performing at the same event, on discovering that his stage costume was missing, proceeded to destroy one of Pink Floyd's vans, injuring himself in the process. As a pair of World War II Spitfire aircraft had been booked to fly over the crowd during their entrance, the band were not able to delay their set. In 2004, Wish You Were Here was ranked number36 on Pitchfork Media's list of the Top 100 albums of the 1970s.

In the UK and US the album was re-issued in quadraphonic using the SQ format in 1976, [nb 6] and in 1980 a special Hi-Fi Today audiophile print was released in the UK. As with The Dark Side of the Moon, the band used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 (on "Welcome to the Machine"), but softened with Gilmour's acoustic guitar, and percussion from Mason. Gilmour shares this view: "I for one would have to say that it is my favourite album, the Wish You Were Here album. It was Pink Floyd's first album with Columbia Records, an affiliate of CBS; the band and their manager Steve O'Rourke had been dissatisfied with the efforts of EMI's US label Capitol Records.Like their previous record, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd used studio effects and synthesisers.