Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night

Not a whole lot of valuable information to share about this song, just the little curiosities I found from comparing the 14 CD versions I have.

First, the LP version, which runs 5:16 on EMI's The Singles (1992), and runs at 127.7 BPM throughout. Unfortunately, a little bit of the opening drumbeat is cut off on this version. Too bad, because it otherwise sounds pretty good here. (I don't have First Offense to compare.) All the LP versions I have on CD use the same analog transfer as The Singles, and all have the same truncated opening note:

• Sony Germany's 2-CD Pop And Wave Vol. 5 (1994)
• Simitar's Number Ones The '80s (1998; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 3 1984-1985 (1999; digitally exactly 0.4 dB louder)

For the proper 45 version, I found just three unique analog transfers.

The first one to appear on CD was on Razor & Tie's 2-CD Totally '80s (1993), where it runs 127.6 BPM throughout. It sounds just fine here.

The next one is on EMI's Living In Oblivion Vol. 3 (1994), where it runs 127.5 BPM throughout. Sound is comparable to Totally '80s. Other CDs that use the same analog transfer as Living In Oblivion are:

• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 11 1983-1984 (1995; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Madacy's Rock On 1984 (1996; digitally exactly 1.3 dB louder)
• Madacy's Rock On 1984 Sunglasses At Night (1998; digitally exactly same level - includes dithering noise even though no level or EQ change)

Finally, Bill Inglot did a fresh analog transfer for Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 14 (1995), where it runs at 127.9 BPM throughout. Discs that use the same analog transfer are:

• Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 21 Club '80s (2001; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002; a little too loud here)

Out of the above CDs, I prefer the sound on Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 14, which sounds to my ears like it's from a slightly lower-generation source tape than the others. None sound bad, and I wouldn't actively avoid any of them.

Finally, there are some stragglers, which I actively would avoid:

Swaitek's 50-CD promo set The A-List uses an incorrect edit of the LP version in attempt to recreate the 45. I suspect that this edit was done in-house at TM Century. No noise reduction, though, so that's good.

EMI Australia's 5-CD Eighties Complete Vol. 1 (1997) fades a few seconds earlier than the others and seems to have noise reduction. Very odd to hear NR on an actual EMI collection, but apparently they couldn't get decent source tapes from Canada to Australia for this track.

Edited by crapfromthepast

Seconded. These analyses of yours really are invaluable, Crap.

I agree these posts are extremely helpful. Thanks Ron.

Opening drumbeat of the LP version is also truncated on my original US EMI CD of "First Offense".

Todd Ireland wrote: I'm wondering if the truncated portion of the opening note might possibly be embedded in the negative track indexing leading up to the starting point?

I finally was able to check this in EAC and, yes, Todd is correct. For some reason the table of contents begins track 1 at exactly 1 second. In fact, indexing is off by this amount on every track, which means many songs have truncated beginnings with a fraction of a second of the following song at the end of the track. I had to re-rip my copy of First Offense after accounting for the index errors.