Customer Reviews

Money for Nothing

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was only made because Dire Straits needed an album to fulfill their music contract. Since they had only three good albums they filled their playlist with live songs and previously unreleased edits. Its horrible that they edited "Money for Nothing" from seven minutes to just under five! Unfortuneately, ALL greatest hits compilations have this edited version so that it is not possible to have "Sultans of Swing" and the full "Money for Nothing" on the same disc (without illegally burning a disc). It was very disappointing and I am still waiting for a compilation that includes all of their good songs with no live or edited versions of songs.

If you are looking to buy a Dire Straits album, no better place than to start here. This contains all the best songs from their debut up to 'Brothers In Arms'. The songs are predominantly in original studio form and not edited in the case of 'Sultans of Swing', 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Tunnel of Love'. And the one superb cut from the otherwise overrated live album ALCHEMY is included here in the form of 'Telegraph Road'.

Its a shame that the last two songs, 'Money for Nothing' and 'Brothers In Arms' have been edited though. For that reason you'll want to buy the 'Brothers In Arms' LP as well. Otherwise a perfect intro to the group.

Second verse of MFN is edited out - pretty irritating, especially since the purpose of the verse is to make the speaker sound ignorant. Kind of ironic. I'd wait for the unedited version if I had it to do over again. I think the rest of the songs are unscathed.

The Money for Nothing album is a superb compilation of much of the best of the group's earlier works. Dire Straits' "best of" albums are all good, but they share many of the same songs. If you want to avoid having multiple copies of songs you have to look at the differences between these compilation albums. My preference was Money for Nothing because it has a balanced sampling of songs from the first five albums (it was released before the 6th album, On Every Street, so doesn't have any tracks from that album). On the other hand, the Sultans of Swing and Private Investigations compilations focus on the last four albums, especially Brothers in Arms, and almost completely ignore the first two albums. I think the first three albums are the group's best, so my nod to the Money for Nothing compilation was a no-brainer. It includes three early tracks...Down to the Waterline, Portobello Belle, and Where Do You Think You're Going...that don't appear on any of the other compilations. The album also has two live tracks, Portobello Belle and Telegraph Road, that are quite good.

Notes: The album's Money for Nothing and Brothers in Arms tracks are edited versions, but the editing was smoothly done and does not in my opinion detract from the songs' integrity. What does irk me though, is that a different studio version of Where Do You Think You're Going was used, instead of the considerably better version from the Communique album.

This is really a good, low priced, starting point for anyone interested in Dire Straits' classic rock. Mark Knopfler and brother David Knopfler created a band that still is worth a listen. This album has a good compilation of their songs but not all. Anyone that watched MTV will instantly remember 'Money for Nothing' including its' animated rock video. TV's Miami Vice even had an episode using the ballad 'Brothers in Arms'. There are alot of their greats here including one of their best 'Tunnel of Love'.

I gave this only 4 stars instead of 5 because of the missing lyrics on 'Money for Nothing'. There really is no good reason for this. Mark and his bother David went on to solo careers but left a great legacy of classic rock. Well worth adding to the music collection.

Nowhere in your description did you mention the album was edited. After first listen, I noticed that Money For Nothing has a whole verse cut out, even though the lyrics for that verse are in the liner notes. What is this, some sort of sanitized version? False advertising....not happy at all. How do I return it?

Of the Dire straits best of's on the market `Money for Nothing' is my favourite, simply because it is the first one I bought and I prefer the track running order to later collections. This has a selection of tracks up until `Brothers in Arms' album and although later best of's include tracks from `On Every Street' and `On The Night' this in no way detracts from the tracks on offer here. From `Sultans of Swing' to the fun feel of `Twisting by The Pool' and including the romantic standard `Romeo and Juliet' this album covers them all. My particular favourite is `Telegraph Road' which leads you to the anthem `Money for Nothing' and the brooding `Brothers in Arms' which ends this wonderful selection. For an example of Knopflers song writing and unique guitar tone in one place this album is a great place to start and once you've taken a listen I'll guarantee you'll want to go and find more. A solid `best of' collection that is still worth considering despite later greatest hits packages.

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This has always been a favorite; I just wore out another copy & the shipper was fast enough to get it to me by Christmas Eve, which really pleased me.

I liked this compilation good, but Sultans of Swing - The Very
Best of Dire Straits has more choices like "Love over gold",
"Lady writer", "So Far away", "Calling elvis", "Heavy Fuel", &
"On every street". This compilation is good for most of their
big hits like "Sultans", "Romeo", "Telegraph", & "Money for Nothing". Anyway, here's how the songs were on this CD.

Sultans of Swing 10/10 Great song, great riffs. Everyone's favorite and one of mine too.

Down to the Waterline 10/10 My favorite song from their debut
album.

Portobello Belle 7/10 I think the other version was better.

Twisting by the Pool 9/10 Great

Tunnel of Love 11/10 My favorite song!!! I love this song.

Romeo and Juliet 8/10 Everyone likes this song, it's good and
fun but not so great!! The live version is way better.

Where Do You Think You're Going 6/10 Different

Walk of Life 9/10 Check out the On the night version.

Private Investigations 9/10 A little too slow.

Telegraph Road 9/10 The other version is slightly better on the
Love over gold cd.

Money for Nothing 9/10 Bad!!! Editing this song is terrible.
Listen to the brothers in arms version. I'll give this song an
11 if it was 8 mintues.

Brothers in Arms 8/10 Too boring, great song for guitar riffs.

This cd is always scratched when you buy it,
thank you very much

Everybody likes at least one DS song, be it "Walk of Life", "Money for Nothing" or "Telegraph Road". All of these songs are here, as well as some of their other all-time greats. If you're a fan, you'll love it, and if you're not, you'll soon love it. Deserves a place in everybody's CD collection.