Communiqu (Dire Straits album)

Communiqu is the second studio album by the British 4 Critical reception

rock band Dire Straits released on 15 June 1979 by
Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros.
Records in the United States. The album produced the
single "Lady Writer", which reached #45 on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart and #51 on the UK Singles Chart. The
album reached #1 on album charts in Germany, New
Zealand, and Sweden, #11 in the United States and #5
in the United Kingdom. Communiqu was later certied
gold in the United States, platinum in the United King-
dom and double-platinum in France.
In his retrospective review for AllMusic, William
Ruhlmann gave the album two and a half out of ve stars,
writing that the groups sophomore eort seemed little
more than a carbon copy of its predecessor with less com-
pelling material.[1]
5 Track listing
All tracks written by Mark Knoper.

1 Recording
6 Personnel
Communiqu was recorded from 28 November to 12 De-
Music
cember 1978 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau. The
album was produced by Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler,
veteran producers from Muscle Shoals Sound Studio who Mark Knoper vocals, lead and rhythm guitars
made recordings with Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin,
the Staple Singers, The Rolling Stones, Trac, Elton David Knoper rhythm guitar and vocals
John, Boz Scaggs, Willie Nelson, and Paul Simon.
John Illsley bass and vocals

Pick Withers drums

2 Release Barry Beckett (credited as B. Bear) keyboards

Production
Communiqu became the rst album ever to enter the
German charts at number one in its rst week of release,
while their debut album, Dire Straits was still at the num- Barry Beckett producer
ber three position. The album went on to sell over 7
million copies worldwide: in Europe it sold 3.6 million Jerry Wexler producer
copies, and in the United States it reached gold status.
Jack Nuber engineer
Communiqu was remastered and released with the rest of
the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world Thelbert Rigby tape operator
outside the United States, and on 19 September 2000 in
the United States. Gregg Hamm mix engineer

Bobby Hata mastering

Paul Wexler mastering supervisor

3 Artwork
Geo Halpin illustrations

The album cover was designed by Phonograms advertis- Bob Ludwig remastering
ing agency Grant Advertising UK. It won album cover of
the year in the NME awards in 1979. Alan Schmidt art direction[3]

1
2 9 EXTERNAL LINKS

7 Charts and certications 9 External links

7.1 Albums Communiqu at Mark Knoper ocial website

Communiqu at MusicBrainz (list of releases)

Communiqu spent 30 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.

7.2 Singles

7.3 Sales and certications

8 References
Notes

Citations

[1] Ruhlmann, William. Communiqu". AllMusic. Re-

trieved 4 December 2012.

[2] Christgau, Robert (2011). Dire Straits. Robert Christ-

gau. Retrieved 5 July 2011.

[3] Communiqu (booklet). Dire Straits. Burbank, Califor-

nia: Warner Bros. Records. 1979. p. 11. 947770-2.

[4] Canadian album certications Dire Straits Commu-

nique. Music Canada.

[5] Dire Straits (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat IFPI Fin-

land.

[6] French album certications Dire Straits Commu-

niqu" (in French). InfoDisc. Select DIRE STRAITS and
click OK

[7] Les Albums Double Platine :" (in French). Infodisc.fr.

Retrieved 21 August 2013.

[8] Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Dire Straits; 'Communiqu')"

(in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.

[9] Slo xitos 1959-2002 Ao A Ao: Certicados 1979-

1990 (in Spanish). Iberautor Promociones Culturales.
ISBN 8480486392.

[10] The Ocial Swiss Charts and Music Community:

Awards (Dire Straits; 'Communique')". IFPI Switzerland.
Hung Medien.

[11] British album certications Dire Straits Commu-

niqu". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Commu-
niqu in the eld Keywords. Select Title in the eld Search
by. Select album in the eld By Format. Select Platinum
in the eld By Award. Click Search

[12] American album certications Dire Straits Commu-

nique. Recording Industry Association of America. If
necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select
Album, then click SEARCH
 3

10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

10.1 Text
Communiqu (Dire Straits album) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communiqu%C3%A9_(Dire_Straits_album)?oldid=
765622630 Contributors: JeLuF, No-Fx, RedWolf, ScudLee, Adziura, Flyhighplato, Mike Rosoft, Rich Farmbrough, Deanos, NetBot,
Mdhowe, DCEdwards1966, Greba, Mattbrundage, Koavf, The wub, FlaBot, YurikBot, RobotE, Deeptrivia, RussBot, Jaxl, Fantailfan,
BGC, Jogers, Dandelions, SmackBot, Kilo-Lima, DHN-bot~enwiki, Chris 42, Mark Lungo, Dl2000, Eissme, Blinking Spirit, Cydebot,
Thijs!bot, PEJL, JAnDbot, Y2kcrazyjoker4, Airproong, Zagmac, Ilikedriedfruit, Doomsdayer520, DorganBot, Squids and Chips,
ACSE, Vranak, TXiKiBoT, Tikuko, Lightmouse, Musicman378, Bede735, Escape Orbit, SomeGuy11112, Swanrizla, DumZiBoT, Cdl
obelix, Addbot, SpBot, Tassedethe, DinoBot2, Zorrobot, J Milburn Bot, Radiopathy, Poirier2000, ArthurBot, GrouchoBot, Hushpuckena,
FrescoBot, Ionutzmovie, Rorylyng, RedBot, Mauri96, EmausBot, MATHEUS HS, CactusBot, Middle Eye 512, Zeke, the Mad Horrorist,
Monkbot, Cryoweta, Chapa1985, Uncreativeusername and Anonymous: 58

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