Sunday Music: Sultans Of Swing

According to legend, Mark Knopfler was in a nearly empty London pub one night while a jazz band played off in the corner. After their set, the frontman announced that their name was “The Sultans of Swing.” The irony stuck with him and he went on to mythologize them in the lyrics.

Musically, this song is all about Knopfler’s guitar part. His touch and the tone of the guitar are perfect. It’s a distinct sound, and considering where music was in the late 1970s, it stood out as much then as it still does today.

Plus, if you hear so much as a piece of it on a passing car radio, it’s stuck in your head for days…