And, like Clapton, his appeal is not only in his stellar playing, but also in his bluesy, soulful singing voice. Mark Knopfler, in my opinion, ranks right up there with Eric Clapton as a King of the Stratocaster a true guitar hero and master if there ever was one. This compilation was released without much fanfare, but I highly recommend it! As it should be, the emphasis is on the Dire Straits hits, but when you pick and choose in his solo output, there are some beautiful tracks there as well. If you distill the very best of Mark Knopfler's 25+ year career down to 140 minutes, it really is amazing how good it all sounds. The duet with Emmylou Harris is nice, but not essential. "Sailing to Philadelphia", "What It Is" and "Boom, Like That" are equal to his Dire Stratis-standards. If you don't have the "Local Hero" and "Cal" mostly instrumental soundtracks, do yourself a favor and buy them. Really only 2 (semi)classics are missing: "Twisting by the Pool" and "Heavy Fuel" (the latter in any event only a second rate carbon copy of "Money for Nothing"). of "Tunnel of Love", etc.Also, no live versions of certain songs are found here (unlike on the "Sultans of Swing" compilation). The big thing is that the Dire Straits songs are presented in original album-length format. "Private Investigations: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler" (2 CDs 139 min.) brings 14 Dire Straits songs, 7 Knopfler solo songs, and 1 new Knopfler-Emmylou Harris duet "All the Roadrunning".
I must admit upfront that I am not a great fan of his solo work. There have been a number of Dire Straits "best of" compilations, including the decent "Sultans of Swing" 1998 compilation, but this is the first time that the entire career of Mark Knopfler, both in Dire Straits and as a solo artist, is reviewed.