Money for Nothing

Knopfler has said he wrote the lyric in the window display of an appliance store in New York. A delivery man was watching MTV and commenting on the rock stars on the screens, and Knopfler borrowed a pen and wrote down what he said, including the line "That ain't working!". He had also seen the Police on MTV saying "I want my MTV", and he set that phrase to the melody of their song Don't Stand So Close to Me. For that reason Sting is credited as a co-writer.

During the sessions at AIR Studios on Montserrat, someone told Knopfler that Sting was on holiday on the beach, and Sting came to the studio. He recorded his vocal in the first week of January 1985. Knopfler described the riff as a two-fingered boogie from the clawhammer style. The guitar tone came, by Illsley's account, from a microphone that was knocked to the floor in front of the speaker, and he played a Gibson Les Paul through a Laney amp. Terry Williams played the drum crescendo that opens the track, and Neil Jason played fretless bass slides on the intro of the extended version.

Illsley recalled that the song was number one in America while Brothers in Arms topped the US album chart. The song exists in four lengths: a 4:05 single and video edit, a 4:38 long edit, a 7:04 original vinyl version and an 8:24 full version on CD, cassette and 12-inch. The video was the first aired on MTV Europe when it launched on 1 August 1987.