Dire Straits: Love Over Gold (LP)

By the time Dire Straits released their first British No. 1 album, they had already been building a large fan base in Britain and around the world for years. This happened in the early fall of 1982 with their fourth studio album, Love Over Gold. Within two weeks, on October 16 of the same year, they were back on the U.S. charts, straight into the Top 40. The LP's debut at #38 was the second highest of the week, behind Billy Joel's debut at #29 with The Nylon Curtain. Recorded at the Power Station in New York, the LP showed Mark Knopfler's songwriting skills reaching a new level of sophistication. He was becoming more confident in expressing himself in a way that went beyond the three-minute single, which is immediately evident in the album's opening track, the 14-minute "Telegraph Road." In fact, Love Over Gold contained only five tracks, the shortest of which, "Industrial Disease," lasted just under six minutes. The latter song became a big rock radio hit in America, helping the album reach #19 there.