In the UK, a couple of the band’s post-“Sultans Of Swing” singles made the top 10. But Dire Straits weren’t really a singles act.
It’s a 6.) Knopfler also got into film scoring, starting with the pretty great 1983 movie Local Hero. He produced Bob Dylan’s 1983 album Infidels and wrote Tina Turner’s 1984 single “ Private Dancer.” (“Private Dancer” peaked at #7. Knopfler found himself accepted by the rock establishment. It’s a 4.)Īfter that first LP, Dire Straits cranked out three more albums in quick succession, and all of them sold pretty well, going either platinum or gold in the US. (In the US, “Sultans Of Swing” peaked at #4. Dire Straits’ self-titled debut album took off on both sides of the Atlantic, and “Sultans Of Swing” hit the top 10 in a bunch of different countries. That DJ liked their demo tape enough that he played their drawling, drowsy roots-rock song “ Sultans Of Swing” on the air, which brought labels around. At the time, Mark was pushing 30.ĭire Straits got signed in 1978, after going to see a BBC radio DJ to ask for advice. In 1977, Knopfler and his brother David formed the Café Racers, the band that would become Dire Straits. Instead, Knopfler went to college in Leeds and found a job as a newspaper reporter, then as a teacher.
As a young man, Knopfler played in a series of bands, but music wasn’t his career. Knopfler was in love with American blues, and he started playing guitar as a kid. Mark Knopfler was born in Scotland, the son of an English woman and a Jewish father who’d fled Hungary just before the Nazis took over. The song took off, and it helped define the period after that initial rush of MTV excitement - the time when the corporate rockers reclaimed their spot at the top of the food chain. I’ve always been curious how much of “Money For Nothing” was sincere and how much was satire. Before “Money For Nothing,” Knopfler’s band Dire Straits had only scored one American hit, and they’d done it in the last few years before MTV became a concern. He was a balding, middle-aged guitar player - exactly the sort of boomer-establishment rock ‘n’ roll insider that MTV was putting out of business in the early ’80s. Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler was not an MTV star.