Sunglasses At Night (5:20)

“Sunglasses at Night” is the platinum-selling song recorded by Corey Hart. It was the first single to be released off his debut album, 1983’s First Offense, and rose to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is considered by many to be a classic of 1980s new romantic music, combining synthesizer pop, obscure lyrics and an almost Gothic ambiance in a hypnotic epic.

The original lyrics for the song were about a totalitarian society that made everyone wear their sunglasses at night; however under pressure from Hart’s record company to make something more marketable, the song was altered to be more “romantic”.
The video, however, reflects the original vision of a police state, with scenes of Hart, sans-sunglasses, being strong-armed by police officers and paraded past various citizens wearing their regulation shades. Near the end of the video, Hart is brought to the office of a female police officer, played by Laurie Brown, who later became the host of The NewMusic as well as a VJ on MuchMusic

In popular culture

The song is featured in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as part of the New Wave radio station Wave 103.

The song made #50 in VH1’s 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs of all Time.

The song also made #23 in Blender magazine’s 50 Worst Songs Ever.

The popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is known for naming each episode after an ’80s hit song, named an episode after this song. The episode faced the issue of addiction to gambling.