Pop Song 676 of 1000 'Sunglasses at Night' Corey Hart 1984

Pop Song 676 of 1000 'Sunglasses at Night' Corey Hart 1984

Official MV    • Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night (Off...  

As mentioned above, Hart was pretty much finished with First Offense, but he was always writing and demoing new material even in the waning stages of the process. One of those demos was based on the phrase “My Cigarette is Wet,” a phrase whose usefulness came mostly in terms of the melody that it inspired.

While in England recording the album, Hart had purchased a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, the classic brand that had become iconic again in the ’80s. But the sun hadn’t shined much in England to give him an opportunity to show them off. When he got back to Canada, he started wearing them more, and that’s when the phrase I wear my sunglasses at night came to him. He headed back into the studio and attached it to the “My Cigarette Is Wet” demo, and a hit was born.

The basic gist of the song is the narrator is telling his girl that her deceptive practices aren’t unnoticed, as the shades are just a symbol of his powers of insight and intuition.

Hart’s vocals are also right on point with the themes of the lyrics, all mysterious and insinuating in the verses, and then potent and defiant in the choruses, especially on the immortal line: Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no. Her storylines are well-known to him, as deceptive as she thinks she might be: And I wear my sunglasses at night / So I can, so I can / See the light that’s right before my eyes.