Song · Mark Knopfler
“What It Is” by Mark Knopfler
From the album Sailing to Philadelphia (2000)
“What It Is” by Mark Knopfler appears on 4 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2009 and 2020. It was first released in 2000 on the album Sailing to Philadelphia. Its best result is #396 on the WYEP 913 Songs That Matter from the Last Decade. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #6,950 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Mark Knopfler introduced his second solo album, Sailing to Philadelphia, with "What It Is", the lead single Mercury released on 4 September 2000, and it's a valentine to Edinburgh, name-checking Edinburgh Castle, the Stone of Scone and the Canongate Tolbooth. Knopfler wrote it alone and produced it with Chuck Ainlay, who recorded and mixed it as well.
The band is a crack roots-rock outfit: Knopfler and Richard Bennett on guitars, Glenn Worf on bass, Chad Cromwell on drums, Jim Cox on piano and Hammond organ, Guy Fletcher on keyboards and backing vocals, and Aubrey Haynie on violin. It went top 10 in Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain and on America's Triple-A chart, and Mexico got a longer version with an extra verse.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 396 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Songs That Matter from the Last Decade | 913 |
| 2009 | 791 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2010 | 464 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2020 | 1856 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
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