Lead single

A lead single is usually the first single to be released from a studio album, by a musician or a band, before the album itself is released.

Early singles

During the era of the gramophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less commercial appeal on a single ten-inch 78 RPM shellac record. After the launch of the long-playing microgroove record in 1948 and the arrival of the 45rpm single the following year, singles continued to appear separately from albums into the 1960s. For instance, the early rock and roll market of the 1950s and early 1960s was very much focused on singles rather than albums. Songs such as "Heartbreak Hotel", "Johnny B. Goode", and "Tutti Frutti" only appeared later on album compilations of singles. Even through the 1960s, leading rock artists such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones issued songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane," "Good Vibrations", "Positively 4th Street", and "Honky Tonk Women" as singles apart from any contemporary albums.

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded with his younger brother, David Knopfler, in 1977.

Since Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler has recorded and produced eight solo albums, and, as with his previous band, produced many hit songs. He has composed and produced film scores for eight films, including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), and Wag the Dog (1997).

In addition to his work with Dire Straits and as a solo artist and composer, Knopfler has recorded and performed with many prominent musicians, including Chet Atkins, Chris Botti, John Anderson, the Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Bryan Ferry, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, Sonny Landreth, Phil Lynott, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, Sting, and James Taylor, sometimes working as a session musician. He has produced albums for Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman.

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno,RDI (/ˈiːnoʊ/; born 15 May 1948 and originally christened Brian Peter George Eno), professionally known as Brian Eno or simply Eno, is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music. Born in Suffolk, Eno studied under Roy Ascott at Ipswich Civic College and later attended Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting, cybernetics, and experimental music techniques during his time there. He joined the band Roxy Music as synthesiser player in the early 1970s. The group's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon became tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry, leaving the group in 1973 to record innovative solo albums that would explore various styles and help pioneer ambient music.

Throughout the 1970s, Eno also worked as an influential collaborator and music producer, collaborating with Robert Fripp on the LPs (No Pussyfooting) (1973) and Evening Star (1975), David Bowie on his acclaimed "Berlin Trilogy," avant-garde musicians Jon Hassell and Harold Budd on several respective projects, and David Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (released 1981), and further producing the acclaimed "No Wave" compilation No New York (1978), three albums by New York post-punk group Talking Heads, and albums by new wave bands Devo and Ultravox, among others. In subsequent decades, he has produced or worked on albums by U2, James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Paul Simon, Grace Jones, James Blake and Slowdive, among others. Eno has also pursued multimedia ventures in parallel to his music career, including his mid-1970s development of "Oblique Strategies" (written with Peter Schmidt), a deck of cards featuring cryptic aphorisms intended to break creative blocks and encourage lateral thinking.