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Sunglasses at Night
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Sunglasses at Night |
| cover | Sunglasses at Night (Corey Hart album - cover art).jpg |
| type | single |
| artist | Corey Hart |
| album | First Offense |
| B-side | At the Dance |
| released | January 21, 1984 (US) |
| studio | London, England |
| * Synth-pop<ref name | "Molanphy 2024" |
| writer | Corey Hart |
| prev_title | Ooh Baby! |
| prev_year | 1976 |
| next_title | It Ain't Enough |
| next_year | 1984 |
| misc |
| B-side = At the Dance
- Synth-pop
- new wave
- 5:20 (LP version)
- 3:53 (7-inch version)
- Aquarius (Canada)
- EMI America (worldwide)
- Jon Astley
- Phil Chapman
"Sunglasses at Night" is a song by Canadian singer Corey Hart. It was released on November 11, 1983, as the first single from his debut album, 1983's First Offense, and became a chart hit, rising to number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 and entering the top 40 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and West Germany. 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".
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 A4. The song’s synthesizer riff uses a descending upper-leading tone sequence through the chords Bm, Gdim, G, and Bm (the G 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, 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.
Charts
Weekly charts
| Chart (1984) | Peak | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| position | Australia (Kent Music Report) | US Cash Box Top 100 | |
| 16 | |||
| 7 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (1984) | Rank | Australia (Kent Music Report) | Canada Top Singles (RPM) | US Billboard Hot 100 | US Cash Box Top 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94 | |||||
| 100 | |||||
| 36 | |||||
| 62 |
Covers and media
In 2002, a remix by the Canadian and Finnish duo Tiga and Zyntherius peaked at number 25 on the UK singles chart. British grime artist Skepta released a 2009 version that sampled the original, which reached number 64 on the same chart.
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 1980s version. The track plays a significant role in the 2022 film Nope, including a slowed remix on the film's soundtrack by Michael Abels.
In 2015, the Finnish hard rock supergroup The Local Band released a cover of the song, with Alexi Laiho as a member of the band. In 2024, German-American model and television host Heidi Klum released a cover with production by Dutch DJ and record producer Tiësto.
References
References
- Molanphy, Chris. (September 16, 2024). "What's 1984 Got to Do with It Edition". [[Slate (magazine).
- Simon Cantlon. "First Offense". AllMusic.
- Hart, Corey. (September 29, 2014). "Corey Hart "Sunglasses At Night" Sheet Music in Bb Minor (transposable)".
- "Spot On Track - The Spotify Tracker".
- Ward, Christopher. (2016). "Is this Live?: Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic". Random House of Canada.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56HSPQHSqEE Corey Hart "Sunglasses at Night" official video]
- Kent, David. (1993). "Australian Chart Book 1970–1992". Australian Chart Book.
- "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending September 1, 1984".
- "Kent Music Report No 548 – 31 December 1984 > National Top 100 Singles for 1984". [[Kent Music Report]].
- "Top 100 Singles of 1984".
- (December 22, 1984). "Talent Almanac 1985: Top Pop Singles".
- "The Cash Box Year-End Charts: 1984".
- "SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT by TIGA AND ZYNTHERIUS".
- "SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT by Skepta".
- (2016). "Seven Songs You Only Know And Love If You Played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City". NME.
- (2022). "Hear The Creepy, Screwed Remix Of Corey Hart's 'Sunglasses At Night' From Jordan Peele's Nope". StereoGum.
- Tarmo, Eero. (2015-11-06). "Alexi Laiho, Jussi69, Olli Herman ja Archie Cruz – Perjantaibiisinä The Local Band: Sunglasses At Night".
- (2024). "How Heidi Klum and Tiësto Gave a Classic Eighties Song a 'Whole New Life'". Rolling Stone.
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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