The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Engineer Peter Bown worked with producer Norman Smith, who steered the group toward shorter songs and found Barrett hard to connect with as his LSD use escalated. Barrett's singing was quiet, so he was put in a vocal isolation booth. The sound leans on EMT plate reverb, an echo chamber and artificial double tracking. Lucifer Sam began life as Percy the Rat Catcher, and Bike was written before the sessions started.

The long improvisation Interstellar Overdrive was recorded in five takes on 27 February 1967, with a sixth on 16 March in an attempt at a shorter version. The opener Astronomy Domine begins with manager Peter Jenner reading planet and star names through a megaphone.

In the United States the album came out as Pink Floyd on Tower, with a different running order that dropped three songs and added See Emily Play. It reached number 6 in Britain and number 131 on the Billboard 200. Record Mirror and NME gave it four stars out of five on release. AllMusic's Steve Huey wrote that it captured both sides of psychedelic experimentation, and a Treble reviewer called it the closest thing to a pop album the band ever made. Rolling Stone ranks it 347th on its 500 list in 2003 and 2012, and 253rd in 2020.