E major · Camelot 12B · 112 BPM
So Far Away
by Dire Straits
- 112
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 69
- Danceability
- 25
- Acousticness
"So Far Away" was recorded for Brothers in Arms, the fifth studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, and it opened the record when the album appeared in 1985. The track was chosen as the lead single in the UK and Europe, where it came out on 12 April 1985 and reached number 20 on the British chart. It fared better elsewhere in Europe, hitting number 4 in Norway, number 6 in Switzerland and number 7 in Sweden, while the Australian release peaked at number 22.
North America had to wait. After the song climbed to number 29 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, it was issued there in February 1986 as the album's third single. It reached number 3 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Dire Straits a third consecutive Top 20 hit from Brothers in Arms.
The single's B-sides varied by territory. European releases carried "Walk of Life", another track from the album, while American copies used "If I Had You" from the 1983 EP ExtendedancEPlay. The 7-inch contained an edited version of "So Far Away" that also appeared on the LP, but the 12-inch carried the full-length version from the CD, a difference sometimes mistaken for an extended mix. Mark Knopfler later recorded the song as a duet with Emmylou Harris for his 2006 album Real Live Roadrunning.
So Far Away runs at 112 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.14 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 536 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.