“Sunglasses at Night”
by Corey Hart
from the album First Offense
1983
Buy the album on Amazon

Yes, i totally missed KaraokeTuesday last week, and admittedly I nearly missed it today (what can I say, it was a day off from work – yay Canada!). This is why Lance and I are blog buddies, to egg each other on when the other one forgets.

I didn’t have cable growing up, but somehow/somewhere I remember watching MTV occasionally (this is before my later years, when I would just watch it at different houses of friends). I have a very foggy memory of the house (or apt.?) where I would watch it, but no idea where that was (my dad’s? a relative’s? No idea).

This song/video is one of the songs I associate distinctly with that memory (I’m sure there a ton, but a few others that stand out are Cindy Lauper – True Colors and Time After Time, and ZZ Top – Legs). I imagine for a while I thought this video was cool, but more strongly I remember thinking how ridiculous it and the video were, so it took me a while to think of trying it at karaoke. When I finally did though, I was hooked. The main vocals are totally in my range. It’s all sung with a sincerity that I’m usually attracted to. It’s a crowd pleaser that reaches into sense memory (at least if you’re over, say, 30). It’s a fierce song. Unfortunately, that’s why I hardly ever do it as well. If I’m going to sing something, i like to commit, and though I certainly didn’t remember it until i first sang it and then started listening to it after to learn the nuances better, the chorus bits are sung with a scratchy/screamy/throaty ferocity that tends to throw off my voice for the rest of the night. Sometimes that works in my favor, but sometimes I feel like I can’t try bigger songs after it (which of course is in the favor of everyone else around). Granted, this is largely because I’m not a good singer and don’t have or use the tools to take care of my voice box, but still.

Either way, it’s a great song (i’m sorry I doubted you for so many years Corey!) and a great song to sing.