"Skateaway" | ||||
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Single by Dire Straits | ||||
from the album Making Movies | ||||
B-side | "Solid Rock" | |||
Released | December 1980 (US)
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Recorded | 20 June – 25 August 1980 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 6:40 (album version) 4:43 (single version) | |||
Label | Vertigo | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mark Knopfler | |||
Producer(s) |
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Dire Straits singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Skateaway" on YouTube |
"Skateaway" is a 1980 rock song by Dire Straits, dealing with a female roller-skater breezing through busy city streets, while listening to a portable radio through her headphones. It appears on the band's 1980 album Making Movies . It was released as a single in 1980, [4] and in January 1981 peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 [5] and number 37 on the UK Singles Chart. [6] The song was accompanied by a video that was popular on MTV, featuring musician Jayzik Azikiwe (1958–2008) as Rollergirl. The daughter of Nigeria's first president Nnamdi Azikiwe, she was credited as Jay Carly in the video directed by Lester Bookbinder.
Record World said that the narrative is "as vivid as [Knopfler's] guitar is distinctive". [7] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated "Skateaway" as Dire Straits' 7th best song, saying that it "sticks closer to a traditional rock-radio format" than the other songs on Making Movies. [2]
Chart (1981) | Peak position |
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New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [8] | 47 |
UK Singles (OCC) [6] | 37 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [5] | 58 |
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers. The band was active from 1977 to 1988 and again from 1990 to 1995.
Making Movies is the third studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 October 1980 by Vertigo Records internationally, Warner Bros. Records in the United States and Mercury Records in Canada. The album includes the single "Romeo and Juliet", which reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as “Tunnel of Love,” featured in the 1982 Richard Gere film An Officer and a Gentleman.
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"Romeo and Juliet" is a rock song by the British rock band Dire Straits, written by frontman Mark Knopfler. It first appeared on the 1980 album Making Movies and was released as a single in 1981. The song subsequently appeared on the Dire Straits live albums Alchemy and On the Night, and later on Knopfler's live duet album with Emmylou Harris, Real Live Roadrunning. The track was also featured on the greatest hits albums Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, and The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations.
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