The single "Sultans of Swing" first broke the US top five early spring 1979 (being a hit a full five months after the album was released there) and then rose to #8 in the British charts. "Water of Love" was also released as a single in some countries, and charted in Australia, reaching #54, and in the Netherlands, reaching #28. In Europe, the album sold four million copies while in the U.S. it sold two million copies.
The album was remastered and released with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 to most of the world excluding the U.S. and on 19 September 2000 in the United States. For 2010 release of an anniversary album is planned.
It will be devoted the 30 anniversary of the edition of a vinyl.
The cover image is taken from a painting by Chuck Loyola, while the Dire Straits Fender icon was designed by Geoff Halpern.
A small number of guitars were used on the album by Mark Knopfler. These included a pair of red Fender Stratocasters (one from 1961-serial number #68354 and one from 1961/62-serial number #80470). He played his 1928 National and 1937 National steel guitars on tracks "Water of Love" and "Wild West End", respectively. A black Fender thinline Telecaster was played on "Setting Me Up". Mark and David also played Mark's sunburst Fender Telecaster. There was also an unidentified acoustic guitar used on several tracks.
The original version of the album contained a slightly shorter version of "Sultans of Swing", omitting the last seconds of the guitar solo at the end of the song, but the full-length version was included on the remastered edition of the album.
Cassette versions of the album often featured the sides in reverse order to the original vinyl album: side A comprised tracks 6 through 9, while side B featured tracks 1 through 5. The French issue of the cassette saw "Down to the Waterline" and "Wild West End" interchanged in the order mentioned above to allow for a more equal playing time on each side.
