"Keep Talking" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1994 album, The Division Bell.

Recording Written by David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Polly Samson, it is sung by Gilmour and also features samples of Stephen Hawking's electronic voice, taken from a BT television advertisement. This same commercial was sampled again in "Talkin' Hawkin'" from Pink Floyd's final studio album, The Endless River.(liner notes from Echoes) Gilmour chose to use the speech after nearly crying to the commercial, which he described as "the most powerful piece of television advertising that I've ever seen in my life." The song also makes use of the talk box guitar effect.

Release The song was the first to be sent to radio stations from the album in the United States in March 1994. It was the group's third #1 hit on the Album Rock Tracks chart (a chart published by Billboard magazine which measures radio play in the United States, and is not a measure of record sales), staying atop for six weeks.

The song was included on the 2001 compilation, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

Live The song was performed every night during the 1994 The Division Bell Tour and live versions, taken from different shows, were included in both the album Pulse and the video of the same name.

The song was sampled by Wiz Khalifa on the title track of his 2009 mixtape Burn After Rolling.

Quotes

Personnel

Pink Floyd David Gilmour – lead vocals, guitar, talk box, EBow Richard Wright – Hammond organ, synthesizer Nick Mason – drums, percussion

Additional musicians Gary Wallis – programming Jon Carin – programming, additional keyboards Guy Pratt – bass guitar Sam Brown – backing vocals Durga McBroom – backing vocals Carol Kenyon – backing vocals Jackie Sheridan – backing vocals Rebecca Leigh-White – backing vocals Stephen Hawking – computer voice, sampled

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1994)PeakpositionCanada Top Singles (RPM)8Europe (European Hit Radio)32US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)1

Year-end charts Chart (1994)PositionCanada Top Singles (RPM)64

Release history Region Date Format Label Catalog no. United States 12 March 1994 CD-R (Modern rock/Alternative radio) Columbia Records CSK 6228 United Kingdom 28 March 1994 CD-R (Contemporary hit radio, BBC Radio 1 rotation) EMI PINK 1 10 October 1994 CDEMDJ 342

References