"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 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 An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...

, rock guitar and cryptic lyrics.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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 Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...

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 B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major and its parallel major is B major. The B natural minor scale is: Changes need ...

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

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 The Don Jail was a jail in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located to the east of the Don River, on Gerrard Street East in the Riverdale neighbourhood. The original building was completed in 1864 and was reopened in 2013 to serve as the administrati ...

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 Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

. This video uses the shorter single version instead of the longer album version.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Covers and media

In 2002, a remix by the Canadian and French duo Tiga and Zyntherius peaked at number 25 on the UK singles chart. British grime artist

Skepta Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding members of ...

released a 2009

version Version may refer to: Computing * Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program * VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS Music * Cover version * Dub version * Remix * ''V ...

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 ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

journalist Mark Beaumont credited the game for increasing awareness of the original 1980s version. In 2024, German-American model and television host

Heidi Klum Heidi Klum (; born 1 June 1973) is a German and American model, television personality, producer, and businesswoman. She appeared on the cover of the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' in 1998 and was the first German model to become a Vict ...

released a cover with production by Dutch DJ and record producer

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( , ), is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix (magazine), Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, h ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunglasses at Night 1983 songs 1984 singles Aquarius Records (Canada) singles Corey Hart (singer) songs EMI America Records singles Juno Award for Video of the Year videos Songs written by Corey Hart (singer)