As we approach the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's seminal album The Dark Side of the Moon, we've been highlighting key studio documents from the recording sessions which took place between 30 May 1972 – 9 February 1973 in Studios Two and Three at Abbey Road.

On this day, one of our most talked-about sessions took place in Studio Three.

It was the soul-piercing vocal by Clare Torry on The Great Gig in the Sky, one of the last tracking sessions for TDSOTM.

"Alan Parsons, who was engineering these sessions, had noted her. Pink Floyd wanted Torry to come in on a Saturday night but she declined, saying she had tickets to see Chuck Berry at the Hammersmith Odeon. She came in the following day instead.

They played her the track and asked her to sing over the top of it. They were happy with the first take, except in one respect: they would really prefer it if she didn't sing the word 'baby'. Faintly embarrassed, she did it again without using any identifiable words. They pronounced themselves satisfied. She left, and in time got her £30 session fee, which included overtime because it had been a Sunday. She had no firm expectation that this would ever come to anything."

- David Hepworth from Abbey Road: The Inside Story of the World's Most Famous Recording Studio

On this day, Side One was completed in Studio Three Control Room by engineers Alan Parsons and Peter James after dubbing sound effects and finishing various crossfades between tracks.

Earlier in the day they worked on mixing the end of Side Two: Brain Damage and Eclipse.

On this day, final crossfading and editing of Money and Us and Them by engineers Peter Bown and Peter James saw the completion of Side Two in Room 4.

Copies of both sides were taken home by the group for consideration.

On this day, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was completed.

Engineers Peter Bown and Peter James recorded various edits from the original master and edited them into the new master, which was copied and given to the group as well as sent to the Harvest label in America, ready for its eventual release on 1 March.

The album achieved instant critical acclaim, and has since become one of the best-selling records of all time.

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