Corey Hart Gets New “Sunglasses”
Nineteen years after its initial release, Corey Hart’s breakthrough
single, “Sunglasses at Night,” is enjoying renewed popularity
thanks to a slew of covers and remixes, including one that features
new vocals by Hart himself.
The song’s familiar synth part is now set to a propulsive dance
beat, and Hart re-cut the vocal specifically for the dance mixes.
It now sounds more melodic, emotive and less somber. “There’s
nothing sampled from the original vocal,” says Hart, now forty. He
had been receiving e-mails about various covers of the track in
Europe, most notably one by Canadian dance duo Tiga and Zyntherius,
whose version has sold some 100,000 copies in Germany. Later, when
Hart was in Montreal working with Celine Dion, Tiga came to the
studio and played it for him. Hart’s label, Sony Music Canada, then
suggested he do his own version. He re-did the vocal at Miami’s
Criteria Hit Factory and the Toronto production team Original 3
made four mixes.
Only the radio club version will be available commercially. The
U.S. release is October 8th on the Tommy Boy Records compilation
Vic Latino Presents 80’s NOW!.
“I’ve heard all those versions and their various life forces,”
says Hart. “I’m not clued into what’s happening in the dance scene
or the club scene so I have no reference point to say if it’s good
or not. I just know sometimes [dance mixes] annoy me and irritate
me [laughs], but this particular one I thought that the
annoyance level was quite low (laughs).”
Almost twenty years have elapsed since Corey Hart convinced his
record company to let him record just one more song for his debut
album, First Offense. The song was “Sunglasses at Night,”
and it was inspired by Phil Chapman, one of the record’s
co-producers, who literally wore his sunglasses at night. The
label, Aquarius, wanted him to save it for his second record, but
Hart’s persistence paid off. He was allowed to return to England to
cut the newly composed song.
Released as the first single, “Sunglasses at Night” made the
twenty-one-year-old Hart a chart-topping star around the world, not
to mention a heartthrob. His first five albums sold a combined 10
millions copies.
Hart, who has been living in Nassau with his wife, Quebec-born
singer Julie Masse, and their three young daughters, has been away
from the spotlight since releasing his eighth studio album,
Jade, in 1998. Behind the scenes, he wrote “Prayer” on
Celine Dion’s latest album, A New Day Has Come (he had two
songs on her 1997 Let’s Talk About Love album).
Hart will record his very first live album, backed by the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, over two concerts October 30th and
November 1st at Montreal’s Place Des Arts. He is also contemplating
going into the studio to cut three or four new songs that the MSO
would then perform them as well, and making both versions of each
available on the album.