Sultans of Swing

Dire Straits' first single, this song is about a group of guys who go to a club after work and catch a local band called Sultans Of Swing. It's one of those bar bands that has pretty good chops but lack the ambition (and youth) to go any further. At least one member - Harry - has a day job and is doing alright. The song veered away from the waning disco style and the nascent punk movement to become a sizable hit and launch Dire Straits' career.

Group leader Mark Knopfler got the idea for song this from watching a lousy club band perform. As the story goes, Knopfler was in Ipswich on a rainy night. He ducked into a bar where a mediocre band was closing out the night to an audience that was maybe four or five drunks unaware of their surroundings. The hapless band ended their set with the lead singer announcing, with no apparent irony, "Goodnight and thank you. We are the sultans of swing." Said Knopfler: "When the guys said 'Thank you very much, We are the Sultans of Swing,' there was something really funny about it to me because Sultans, they absolutely weren't. You know they were rather tired little blokes in pullovers." Knopfler got a lot of songwriting ideas from observing everyday people, something that got harder to do when he became famous.

"Sultans Of Swing" was one of five songs Dire Straits included on a deme tape they made on the cheap in July 1977. A BBC DJ in London named Charlie Gillett got a hold of the demo and started playing the songs that August, which set off a bidding war for the band. They signed with the Vertigo label and made their debut album with producer Muff Winwood. "Sultans" was released in their native UK in May 1978 a few weeks ahead of the album. They toured there around this time and benefited from great reviews, but the song didn't chart in the UK until March 1978, peaking at #8 in April (the album reached #5 that same month). In America they caught on faster. The album was released there in October 1978 with "Sultans" issued as a single in January 1979, a month before they started their first US tour. As the song and album were peaking in the UK in April, they were doing the same in America, but reaching greater heights, with the song going to #4 and the album to #2.