Clare Torry’s settlement with Pink Floyd, reached out of court in 2005, ended a High Court lawsuit she had filed the previous year seeking co-authorship of “The Great Gig in the Sky.” The terms were never disclosed, but the outcome is visible on every copy of The Dark Side of the Moon pressed since: the track is credited to Richard Wright with vocal composition by Clare Torry, and she has received songwriter royalties on it ever since.1Parade. This Singer-Songwriter Didn’t Get Credit for Pink Floyd’s Cosmic Masterpiece Until 30 Years Later2Know Your Instrument. Clare Torry Great Gig Credit
What She Was Paid, and What She Did
Torry recorded her vocal at Abbey Road on Sunday, January 21, 1973. Engineer Alan Parsons, who had worked with her before, had suggested her to a band that did not know her. She arrived at seven in the evening for a three-hour session and was paid £30, double the standard rate because it was a Sunday.3Neptune Pink Floyd. Clare Torry – Great Gig in the Sky Singer4Louder Sound. Pink Floyd The Great Gig in the Sky Clare Torry
Richard Wright had written a piano piece with a chord progression but nothing on top of it. When Torry asked what the band wanted her to sing, they told her they “had no idea.” She tried scatting; they told her, “No, no, no. We don’t want any words.” With that constraint she decided to use her voice as an instrument, improvising melody and dynamics over the changes.5Something Else Reviews. Inside the Improvisational Sessions for Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky David Gilmour later said he offered “dynamic hints” about which passages to sing quietly and which loudly, but the melodic content was Torry’s.6Open Culture. Clare Torry’s Live Performances of Great Gig in the Sky with Pink Floyd
She left the session assuming the tape would not be used, and only discovered her voice was on the record after she bought a copy herself.7The Arts Desk. Dark Side of the Moon – Clare Torry’s Great Gig in the Sky That £30 was the whole of what she received for the next three decades. The song was credited to Wright alone.
The Lawsuit
Torry first spoke publicly about the missed credit in a 1998 Mojo interview.8Yahoo Entertainment. The Story of Great Gig in the Sky In 2004 she filed suit in the High Court against Pink Floyd and EMI. She asked for co-authorship credit, a half share of the copyright, and 50 percent of past and future income from the track.1Parade. This Singer-Songwriter Didn’t Get Credit for Pink Floyd’s Cosmic Masterpiece Until 30 Years Later
Her legal theory turned on the difference between performing a written part and composing a new one. Wright had written the piano and the harmonic frame. Nothing in that material told Torry what notes to sing. The melody and its shape were hers, invented in the room, which she argued made her a joint author of the composition rather than a session vocalist interpreting someone else’s work.
The Settlement
The case never reached trial. The parties settled out of court in 2005, reportedly in Torry’s favor. The financial terms were confidential, and because no judgment was entered, the payment figure is not public. What is known from the settlement is that Torry received a songwriting credit and ongoing royalties on the track going forward.2Know Your Instrument. Clare Torry Great Gig Credit
The credit line on modern pressings reads “Richard Wright — Vocal composition by Clare Torry,” including on the 50th anniversary reissue of The Dark Side of the Moon in 2023.9Legacy Recordings. Newly Remastered The Dark Side of the Moon Album Released on Vinyl, CD, and Blu-Ray The lawsuit did not produce a written judgment, so it set no formal precedent of its own. But it did not need to. The UK case law it relied on was already there.
Why the Claim Held Up
Torry sued into a legal environment that had, over the previous few years, been working out exactly her question: when does a session player’s contribution cross from performance into co-authorship of the underlying song?
Beckingham v Hodgens (2002)
Violinist Robert Beckingham had been paid a one-time £75 fee to play on the Bluebells’ 1984 hit “Young at Heart.” The violin part he devised became the song’s signature hook. Nearly two decades later he sued for a copyright share and won. The High Court found his violin part “significant and original” and declared him a joint author entitled to equal ownership. The court held that the threshold for a significant and original contribution is not high, and that a one-time session fee does not extinguish a later joint-authorship claim.10University of Warwick. Beckingham v Hodgens – The Session Musician’s Claim to Music Copyright That ruling landed two years before Torry filed.
Sawkins v Hyperion (2005)
The Court of Appeal held that copyright can subsist where “sufficient skill, labour, and judgment” produces a new musical work, and that originality does not require the composition of fresh notes on paper. The court specifically noted that a recording of a person’s spontaneous singing, humming, or improvisation could qualify as music for copyright purposes.11Hyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins. Hyperion Records Ltd v Dr Lionel Sawkins That language covered what Torry had done in the room almost word for word.
Hadley v Kemp (1999) and Fisher v Brooker (2009)
Not every session claim wins. Members of Spandau Ballet lost against Gary Kemp, with the court finding that saxophonist Steve Norman’s improvised 16-bar solo on “True” lacked “significant creative originality” and was the kind of part any competent professional would have supplied. Legal commentators criticized that reasoning, and it did not survive later cases.12University of Oxford Faculty of Law. Mr Justice Arnold’s Paper In Fisher v Brooker, decided by the House of Lords in 2009 (after Torry’s settlement), keyboardist Matthew Fisher won a 40 percent share of the copyright in Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” for the organ solo he had composed at the 1967 recording sessions, despite waiting 38 years to sue. The Lords held that the Copyright Act contains no limitation period that would bar such a claim.13UK Parliament. Fisher v Brooker The trial judge had found Fisher’s part “sufficiently different” from Gary Brooker’s composition “by a wide margin.”145RB. Fisher v Brooker and Onward Music Ltd
Torry’s facts sat comfortably on the winning side of that line. The saxophone solo in Hadley was built on chords the songwriter had written. Torry’s vocal was invented over a piece the band had no plan for and had explicitly refused to direct beyond loud-and-soft cues. A settlement in her favor was the predictable outcome of a case Pink Floyd and EMI would have struggled to defend at trial under Beckingham and Sawkins.
What the Credit Is Worth
The Dark Side of the Moon has sold an estimated 45 million copies worldwide, with total equivalent album sales including streaming and downloads reaching roughly 63 million units.15AXS TV. The Dark Side of the Moon Nears 1,000 Weeks on Charts16Chartmasters. CSPC Pink Floyd Popularity Analysis As of early 2026, the album was nearing 1,000 weeks on Billboard’s Top Album chart, sustained by catalog sales, airplay, and streaming. A songwriting credit on a track from a record with that kind of ongoing life is a continuing income stream. It is what the settlement bought her, on top of whatever undisclosed sum changed hands in 2005, and it is the reason her name has appeared next to Richard Wright’s on every pressing since.