Comfortably Numb - Cover Versions

Cover Versions

An orchestrated version of "Comfortably Numb", arranged by Jaz Coleman, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted by Peter Scholes, appears on the 1995 instrumental album Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd.

Various Pink Floyd tribute albums include this song, including Luther Wright and the Wrongs on Rebuild the Wall (2001), Graham Parker on A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd (2003), Billy Sherwood with Yes members Chris Squire and Alan White on Back Against the Wall (2005); Mostly Autumn with Heather Findlay singing verse, Sarah Slean on Pink Floyd Redux (2006), and Gregorian on Masters of Chant Chapter V (2006). Staind included a live acoustic version on their compilation album The Singles 1996→2006. Bruce Hornsby performs "Comfortably Numb" as part of a medley with his own "Fortunate Son") on the 2005 DVD Three Nights on the Town.

The Scissor Sisters recorded a radically re-arranged disco-oriented version released in January 2004 on Polydor. This release reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the most successful cover of a Pink Floyd song to date in the UK. David Gilmour and Nick Mason expressed a liking for the group's version, and Roger Waters is said to have congratulated the Scissor Sisters on the version, although a lyric was changed, from "a distant ship's smoke on the horizon" to "a distant ship floats on the horizon". Jake Shears, the band's lead singer, was invited by Gilmour to sing "Comfortably Numb" with him in some 2006 shows, but the idea was dropped at the last moment to Shears' public disappointment. This cover received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording, but lost to "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

On 7 July 2008, Van Morrison began to include this song on the set list of some of his live concert performances, echoing his duet with Waters in the 1990 Berlin staging of The Wall. After singing it at the Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada he remarked, "I hope you liked that. I'm not numb and I'm not comfortable."