"Sunglasses at Night" is a song by Canadian singer Corey Hart. It was released on January 21, 1984 as the first single from his debut album, 1983's First Offense, and became a hit single in the United States, officially rising to number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the week that ended on September 1, 1984.[1] The song combines an unflagging synthesizer hook, characteristic arpeggio, rock guitar and cryptic lyrics. AllMusic has since described it as "an instant classic with its distinctive melody and catchy chorus".[2]
According to co-producer Phil Chapman, the recording sessions for the album took place in a studio whose air conditioning/heating vents were directly above the mixing console. Air from the vents blew directly into the faces of the control room personnel, so they often wore sunglasses to protect their eyes. Hart, working on a new song, began to improvise lyrics that included the line "I wear my sunglasses at night."
Composition
The song is performed in the key of B♭ minor in common time with a tempo of 127 beats per minute. Hart's vocals span from F3 to A♭4.[3][4] The song’s synthesizer riff uses a descending upper-leading tone sequence through the chords Bbm, Gdim, Gb, and Bbm (the Gb resolving to the F in this chord).
Music video
The music video, directed by Rob Quartly, shot at the Don Jail in Toronto, reflects the vision of a "fashion" police state, with scenes of Hart in a prison cell, without sunglasses, being strong-armed by police officers and paraded past various citizens wearing their regulation shades. Near the end of the video, Hart is taken to the office of a female police officer (who releases Hart in the song's end), played by Laurie Brown,[5] who later became the host of The NewMusic as well as a VJ on MuchMusic. This video uses the shorter single version instead of the longer album version.[6]
In 2002 a remix by the Canadian and French duo Tiga and Zyntherius peaked at #25 in the UK singles chart.[16] British grime artist Skepta released a 2009 version that sampled the original, which reached #64 in the same chart.[17]
The song was featured in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the fictional in-game radio station Wave 103. NME journalist Mark Beaumont credited the game for increasing awareness of the original 80s version.[18]
In 2024, German-American model and television host Heidi Klum released a cover with production by Dutch DJ and record producer Tiësto.[19]
^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 134. ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid-1983 and 12 June 1988.
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