“Twisting By the Pool” by Dire Straits

"Twisting by the Pool" is Dire Straits kicking off their shoes: a Mark Knopfler song from ExtendedancEPlay, the 1982 EP, that went out as a single on Vertigo in 1983. It's straight rock and roll in A major, tearing along at 182 beats per minute, and AllMusic's William Ruhlmann later heard it as the closest this dour-seeming band had ever come to exuberant rock and roll.

Knopfler wrote, sang and produced it and plays guitar alongside Hal Lindes, with Alan Clark on piano, John Illsley on bass, Terry Williams on drums and John Etchells engineering. The tune predates the record: the band played it live as far back as 1979, and a December 1979 show at the Rainbow in London surfaced in 2024 in the Live 1978–1992 box set. As a single it went all the way to number one in New Zealand.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.