Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing ( S1.3 )

Writing in 2013 on the impact of the song, Rick Moore of American Songwriter reflected:

With "Sultans of Swing" a breath of fresh air was exhaled into the airwaves in the late '70s. Sure, Donald Fagen and Tom Waits were writing great lyrics about characters you'd love to meet and Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen were great guitar players. But Knopfler, he could do both things as well or better than anybody out there in his own way, and didn't seem to have any obvious rock influences unless you try to include Dylan. Like his contemporary and future duet partner Sting, Knopfler's ideas were intellectually and musically stimulating, but were also accessible to the average listener. It was almost like jazz for the layman. "Sultans of Swing" was a lesson in prosody and tasty guitar playing that has seldom been equaled since. If you aren't familiar with "Sultans of Swing" or haven't listened to it in a while, you should definitely check it out.

Record Mirror named "Sultans of Swing" the tenth-best song of 1978. In 1992, Life named it one of the top five songs of 1979. In 1993, Paul Williams included it in his book Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles. The song is on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, Dire Straits' only appearance. In 2006, Mojo included it in a list of the 50 best British songs. Guitar World ranked its guitar solo at the 22nd greatest, and Rolling Stone named it the 32nd greatest guitar song.

Chart performance

The song was originally released in May 1978, but it did not chart at the time. Following its re-issue in January 1979, the song entered the American music pop chart. Unusually, the success of this single release came more than six months after the relatively unheralded release of the band's debut album in October 1978. 

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