Billboard #1 Hits: #578: ‘Money For Nothing’- Dire Straits. September 21, 1985. #1 for 3 weeks.
- Single: ‘Money For Nothing’- Dire Straits
- Record Company- Warner Bros
- Genre: Rock
- Written by Mark Knopfler
- Time: 7:04
- B-side:”Love Over Gold”-Live
- Album- Brothers In Arms
- Grade: A+
- Peaked at #1 3 weeks in Billboard Hot 100. #4 in UK Singles Chart. #1 in Canada.
This was Dire Straits at their peak in popularity- their album- Brothers In Arms- went to #1 and ‘Money For Nothing’- became their only #1 hit. “Money For Nothing’ seemed to be everywhere that late summer-fall- all over the radio and the video was being constantly played on the MTV. Then a strange thing happened- Dire Straits didn’t release another album for six years- their final album. Hard to believe Brothers In Arms went 9 x platinum in the US- and sold 30 million copies all over the world. This was a rock group- can’t imagine anything like that happening today.
slicethelife 
Great tune and guitar riff. While it was completely overexposed, IMHO, I still like it.
If I recall it correctly, “Brothers in Arms” was one of the first all-digitally produced CDs (DDD). I still remember when my best friend and I listened to it and were blown away by the crystal clear sound of the drums’ hi hat. In a way, it was almost too clean! 🙂
That being said, my favorite Dire Straits albums remain their first and “Making Movies.”
Brothers in Arms is a truly great album.
During that hiatus Mark Knopfler got together with Chet Atkins and created the album “Neck and Neck” and I think did some touring with him. That was also the time when he did the Notting Hillbillies album, “Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time.” Both of which are excellent, by the way…