58听|听Top 100 Romeo and Juliet Dire Straits This 鈥榤ockney鈥 love song was the third chart-entry for Dire Straits back in 1981. It achieved the same chart position of number 8 as their first hit Sultans Of Swing had done.
Song facts
Composer
Mark Knopfler
Genre
Rock
Album
Making Movies
Year of Release
1980
UK Chart Position
8
However it was only after this romantic ode that Dire Straits found themselves with a large fan-base and mainstream success.
Lead singer Mark Knopfler once said 鈥渂liss for me is where the Tyne meets the Mississippi delta鈥 and Romeo and Juliet came someway to realising that.
Knopfler talks rather than sings parts of this acoustic track plus his blues and country influences are evident in the ballad form that this tale of everyday British life takes.
Taken from the 1980 Dire Straits album Making Movies it can still be found in song polls today. It ranked number 36 in Radio 2鈥檚 recent Top 50 songs and did even better in the Daily Mail鈥檚 All-time Top 200 ranking 27th.
Hear Mark Knopfler talk about songwriting
The Dire Straits songwriter talks about how he composes his songs - "I sit on a sofa and I have a notebook and a guitar..."
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