The Best Rock Albums of 1985

Today's post in 50 Years of Music, a section of my blog devoted to the best rock albums of the past fifty years, will include the best albums of 1985. I have covered 29 years of music in other posts (1965-84), which can be found by typing the year into the search bar at the top of my blog. Each post in 50 Years of Music is updated frequently, with new albums recommended by readers added to the posts. What's your favorite?

• ZZ Top- Afterburner
• Tears For Fears- Songs From the Big Chair
• John 'Cougar' Mellencamp- Scarecrow
• Mötley Crüe- Theatre of Pain
• The Cult- Love
• Phil Collins- No Jacket Required
• R.E.M.- Fables of the Reconstruction
• Talking Heads- Little Creatures
• John Fogerty- Centerfield
• Sting- The Dream of the Blue Turtles
• Rush- Power Windows
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Southern Accents
• Scorpions- World Wide Live
• George Thorogood- Maverick
• Todd Rundgren- A Capella 
• Dokken- Under Lock and Key 
• Joe Walsh- The Confessor

Dire Straits- Brothers In Arms (1985)

Brothers In Arms is the fifth studio album by British rock band Dire Straits released on May 13, 1985. The album has been certified 9x Platinum in the United States, 13x Platinum in the United Kingdom, and Diamond in Canada. The album charted at #1 in 18 different countries, making it one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time. Also, the album has sold over 30 million copies across the globe making it one of the best selling albums of all time as well.

The album includes five singles-- "So Far Away," "Money for Nothing," "Brothers In Arms," "Walk of Life," and "Your Latest Trick." The first single charted at #19 in the United States, "Money for Nothing" charted at #1 in the United States and #4 in the United Kingdom and Australia, the third single charted at #16 in the United Kingdom, "Walk of Life" charted at #7 in the United States and #2 in the United Kingdom, and finally "Your Latest Trick" charted at #26 in the United Kingdom and reached the #1 spot in the charts in France, but not until eight years afterwards in 1993.

Notable of the album was that it was one of the first albums to be fully digitally recorded, as was the Scorpions release Love at First Sting in 1984 featured in "The Best Albums of 1984." Brothers In Arms was one of the first albums to be directed towards the Compact Disc (CD) market. Also, the music video for "Money for Nothing" received a substantial amount of airplay on MTV (back when MTV was good), featuring what was considered advanced computer graphics animation in 1985. Finally, Brothers In Arms was the first studio album released by a band to sell one million copies in the CD format and to outsell its LP version. A Rykodisc employee later stated after the release of the album: "[In 1985 we] were fighting to get our CDs manufactured because the entire manufacturing capacity was overwhelmed by a demand for a single rock title-- Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms."

For a guitar cover by me of the hit song "Money for Nothing" from the album Brothers In Arms, just click on the link to the YouTube video here: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing Cover

via (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_iudmZPeNs)

Alexander Schwartz - JPageFan71
The Antagonists

https://jpagefan71.blogspot.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/JPageFan71