In Dire Straits’ excellent storm of 1985, the month of September noticed them add singles supremacy to their spectacular success on album and as as a stay attraction. On the September 21 chart, “Money For Nothing” began a three-week reign as their solely No.1 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
Mark Knopfler could have been utilizing a contact of irony when he requested Sting to supply the vocal by which he mentioned he needed his MTV, however MTV actually needed Dire Straits. Because the video for the observe went into their most rotation, the one entered the US chart for the week of July 13. It was the very date on which the band took their place in historical past on the Stay Assist invoice at Wembley Stadium. The Brothers In Arms album that the music got here from was already making big strides, not simply in America however world wide.
A chart lockout
Knopfler was lower than enamored with the well-known video for the music, with its CGI results that helped the know-how to go mainstream. However there was little question that it helped take the observe into the stratosphere. “To me it was almost like a dream sequence,” he later informed Final Traditional Rock Nights of how he had envisaged the clip.
“I’d visualized a kid in his bedroom with that ‘I want my MTV’ thing happening and the camera rushing over the landscape – as I’ve said before, it’s a good thing I never had anything to do with the video!”
With the album already at triple platinum standing within the US and rising quick, these September 21 charts confirmed the Straits within the fourth of 9 weeks on the album summit, a run that might final into November. However now, they dominated the singles market too, as “Money For Nothing” took over from John Parr’s movie theme smash “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)” at No.1.
This was on the top of the so-called “Second British Invasion” of the US, and to underline that time, Dire Straits thus grew to become the fourth UK act in simply six months to high the American singles and album charts on the identical time. Wham!, Phil Collins, and Tears For Fears had all finished it earlier than them in 1985; 5 different artists had finished it within the earlier Eighties. Three of these have been in 1980, when Pink Floyd, Queen and John Lennon all achieved the uncommon feat. Paul McCartney did it in 1982 and The Police in 1983.
Hearken to uDiscover Music’s Dire Straits Finest Of playlist.
Extremely, “Money For Nothing” was the ninth No.1 by a British artist out of 11 to high the Scorching 100. It was additionally Knopfler’s second US High 10 success as a author in some 5 months: Tina Turner’s recording of his “Private Dancer” had reached No.7 in March.
Purchase or stream “Money For Nothing” on Brothers In Arms.
