Brothers in Arms (album)

Brothers in Arms is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 May 1985, by Vertigo Records internationally and Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It was the first album in history to sell over one million copies in CD format. The album was produced by bandleader Mark Knopfler and by Neil Dorfsman, who had engineered Dire Straits' 1982 album Love over Gold and Knopfler's 1983 soundtrack album Local Hero.

Brothers in Arms spent a total of 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart (including ten consecutive weeks between 18 January and 22 March 1986), nine weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States and 34 weeks at number one on the Australian Albums Chart. It was the first album to be certified ten-times platinum in the UK and is the eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history. It is certified nine-times platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and is one of the world's best-selling albums, having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. To promote the album, Dire Straits embarked on the Brothers in Arms Tour, which ran from 1985 to 1986.

The album won a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards; the 20th Anniversary reissue won another Grammy in 2006 for Best Surround Sound Album. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Brothers in Arms number 418 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Q magazine ranked it number 51 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever".

In 2025, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the album’s original release, the album was re-released in several formats, including a five LP box set and triple CD. This box set included the full studio album as well as a previously unreleased full-length live concert from the band’s Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio show during the world tour.