The song was nearly excluded from the album when the co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the rest of the band out-voted him.
A simple rock 'n' roll rhythm is used, with chord changes limited to the famous I, IV and V chords. The lyrics reference oldies, including "I Got A Woman", "Be-Bop-A-Lula", "What'd I Say" and "Mack The Knife".
The music video for the song shown in the U.S. features sports bloopers intercut with footage of the band performing the song on a stage, while the UK video features a street musician wearing the same shirt as Mark Knopfler intercut with the band performing on a stage.
"Walk of Life" was the song played during the Space Shuttle Discovery crew wake-up call on STS-114 Flight Day 7.
The introduction to the song was also used for a time as the theme music for Test Match Special Cricket in the United Kingdom.
When the song was originally released, the band explained that a "walk of life" in the context of this song is a traditional journey taken by a storyteller in the countryside, in which he went from town to town telling stories, in the days before radio, television, and recording
