June 1985.

Oh, if only it were that easy. Maybe in some utopian existence, somewhere over the rainbow perhaps, but not in reality, at least not in this lifetime anyway. Come to think of it, I do believe my head may be taking the piss this morning.

This was written by Mark Knopfler whilst he was in a New York department store, after overhearing two delivery men talking as they watched MTV on the wall of television screens in the store, moaning about their own jobs. He asked to borrow a pen and some paper, sat down at a kitchen display and wrote this song.

Sting is also credited as writer on the track, he sings the line ‘I want my MTV’, but didn’t actually want any credit for his contribution. His record company had other ideas though, they said that his line sounded very similar to the Police’s 1980 hit Don’t Stand So Close to Me and wanted to make sure Sting got the royalties.

On its release this became Dire Strait’s most commercially successful single, reaching number one in the US and Canada. Here in the UK it spent sixteen months on the chart and peaked at number four.

Incidentally, this was the first video aired on MTV Europe when it launched on 1 August, 1987. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out why it was chosen really.