Skateaway

"Skateaway"
Single by Dire Straits
from the album Making Movies
B-side"Solid Rock"
ReleasedDecember 1980 (US)
  • March 1981 (UK)
Recorded20 June – 25 August 1980
Genre
Length6:40 (album version)
4:43 (single version)
LabelVertigo
Songwriter(s)Mark Knopfler
Producer(s)
Dire Straits singles chronology
"Tunnel of Love"
(1980)
"Skateaway"
(1980)
"Romeo and Juliet"
(1981)
Music video
"Skateaway" on YouTube

"Skateaway" is a 1980 rock song by Dire Straits, dealing with a female roller-skater breezing through busy city streets, while listening to a portable radio through her headphones. It appears on the band's 1980 album Making Movies. It was released as a single in 1980, and in January 1981 peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was accompanied by a video that was popular on MTV, featuring musician Jayzik Azikiwe (1958–2008) as Rollergirl. The daughter of Nigeria's first president Nnamdi Azikiwe, she was credited as Jay Carly in the video directed by Lester Bookbinder.