Dire Straits Return To UK Album Top 10 For First Time In 22 Years
The set, released for the first time on CD for National Album Day 2020, debuted at No.9.
Dire Straits’ box set The Studio Albums 1978-1991 has given the beloved, erstwhile British band their first appearance in the Top 10 of the UK album chart for 22 years. The set was released for the first time on CD, as a six-disc collection, for National Album Day 2020 on October 9. It was first available as a limited edition eight-LP vinyl set in 2013, which was given a new pressing and reissued simultaneously with the CD version.
The Studio Albums 1978-1991 entered the Official UK Albums Chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company, at No.9. It gathers together all of Dire Straits’ original studio albums, starting with their self-titled 1978 debut and continuing with 1979’s Communiqué, Making Movies (1980), 1982’s Love Over Gold, Brothers In Arms (1985) and 1991’s On Every Street.
First time since 1998
The band were last in the UK Top 10 in the fall of 1998, when Sultans of Swing – The Very Best of Dire Straits debuted at No.6, spending a second week in the Top 10 at No.10 (and a further eight in the Top 40). On first release, their first two albums both reached No.5, although Dire Straits was a slow-burning breakthrough that didn’t hit that peak until April 1979.
Making Movies topped out at No.4 in the UK, after which Love Over Gold, Brothers In Arms and On Every Street all entered at No.1. Brothers In Arms is their longest-running album in terms of chart weeks, with 271 in the Top 100. The new box set’s arrival takes Dire Straits’ total weeks in the UK album Top 10 to 124.
The new set is presented in a deluxe clamshell box, and the CDs come in mini-vinyl style cardboard wallets. Each album has a poster and reproduces the original sleeve artwork, including lyrics and credits.
Dire Straits – The Studio Albums 1978-1991 can be bought here.
Listen to the best of Dire Straits on Apple Music and Spotify.
