“Sultans of Swing” is one of the greatest songs ever written by Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. The demo of the song was recorded at Pathway Studios, North London in July 1977. The song was re-recorded in February 1978 and it was the first song on side two at the debut album of Dire Straits from 1978. It was also released as the single in some countries including the United Kingdom and Germany.
This song has many covers by other artists, musicians, and bands. The idea for writing this song came up to Mark Knopfler one rainy night during he was in Deptford, UK.
This song was Dire Straits’ first single and it was one of the five songs on the demo tape of the band. They used to get their record deal, and the tape got played on the London radio station and started a bidding war for the band. The demo tape included five songs “Water of Love,” “Down to The Waterline,” “Wild West End,” and David Knopfler’s “Sacred Loving.”
If you want to know the story behind the song “Sultans of Swing,” keep up with reading and click here.
Dire Straits’ 1998 Greatest Hits compilation named as Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits was named after this hit song.
Mark Knopfler derived the name of this song from watching another band perform and referring to themselves as the “Sultans of Swing.” There are clear facts into this song from the night when Mark Knopfler was at the pub where the anonymous band was playing in a style similar to jazz, i.e. music from Deep South of the USA. Also, Mark has described the experience of walking in South London one cold winter rainy night, listen to it up a sound and how he knew that there is a “hot jazz” gig.
There are many facts about this song, but we would be glad to leave you to enjoy listening to this wonderful song and lyrics, down below.
Lyrics
You get a shiver in the dark
It’s raining in the park
But meantime
South of the river
You stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie
Double four time
You feel alright
When you hear the music ring
Well, now you step inside
But you don’t see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the Jazz go down
Competition in other places
Ah, but the horns, they blowin’ that sound
Way on down south
Way on down south, London town
Check out guitar George
He knows all the chords
Mind, it’s strictly rhythm
He doesn’t want to make it cry or sing
Yes and an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing
And Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t make the scene
He’s got a daytime job – he’s doing alright
He can play the Honky Tonk like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans
With the Sultans of Swing
And a crowd of young boys
They’re fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies
And their platform soles
They don’t give a damn
About any trumpet playing band
It ain’t what they call Rock and Roll
And the Sultans
Yeah, the Sultans, they play Creole
Creole
And then the man
He steps right up to the microphone
And says at last
Just as the time bell rings
“Goodnight, now it’s time to go home”
Then he makes it fast
With one more thing
“We are the Sultans – We are the Sultans of Swing”
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