Trivia / Brothers in Arms (Album)

• Black Sheep Hit: "Money for Nothing" is a much more pop-driven rock song than the roots and blues rock Dire Straits is typically known for, yet it just so happens to a good candidate as the the band's Signature Song.
• Banned in China: Canada briefly banned "Money for Nothing" from the radio for its use of "faggot". A special case was made for this song, since the narrator is supposed to be a bigot, stations can chose if they want to play it uncensored or not.
• Corpsing: Mark Knopfler cracks up when singing "He's bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee" in "Money for Nothing".
• Killer App: What The Matrix was to DVDs, Brothers In Arms was to CDs. The incredible sound quality and longer running time than vinyl showed off what those shiny little discs were capable of. It was the first to sell over a million copies on CD, and the first to outsell the vinyl version. While CD technology had made a splash with the audiophile community a few years earlier, the album was released when the players were becoming affordable for the average rock fan.
• The Red Stapler: The decision to place Mark Knopfler's National Style O resonator acoustic on the album cover resulted in a surge in demand for the guitars, leading to high prices which continue to this day.
• Referenced by...: The "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" sets the lyrics from "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" to "Money for Nothing", complete with Mark Knopfler on guitar.
  That little Clampett's got his own cee-ment pond
  That little Clampett he's a millionaire!
• Throw It In!
  • The iconic synth riff in "Walk of Life" was actually something that one of the keyboardists used as a warm-up tune; a producer walked in while the riff was being played and promptly asked if a song could be written around it.
  • The "I want my MTV" part on "Money For Nothing" was ad-libbed by Sting, who was visiting the band's studio one evening. Sting loved the song so much that Mark Knopfler let him sing background vocals on it. This is also why the ad-libs sound so much like The Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me".

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