Corey Hart

Corey Mitchell Hart (born May 31, 1962) is a Canadian singer, musician and songwriter known for his hit singles "Sunglasses at Night", "Never Surrender" and "It Ain't Enough".

He has sold over 16 million records worldwide and recorded nine US Billboard Top 40 hits.

In Canada, 30 of Hart's recordings have been Top 40 hits, including 11 in the Top 10, over the course of over 35 years in the music industry.

Hart was born on May 31, 1962, in Montreal, Quebec, the youngest of five children of Mina (née Weber) and Robert Hart, both Montreal natives.

His paternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant, while Corey's mother was from a Romanian Jewish family.

Hart's parents separated when he was 10 years old.

Hart then lived with his mother and older brother Robbie in Montreal.

He had an especially close relationship with his mother, to whom his first album First Offense was dedicated.

In 1980, Hart represented Canada in the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo (along with singer Dan Hill), marking his first public performance of original material.

Back in Canada, Hart reached out to Billy Joel who was on tour in the Montreal area at the time.

Joel's backup band contacted him and Hart ended up recording several demos with them in Long Island, New York.

Hart worked with several other Canadian studio musicians on demos before finally signing to the Aquarius Records label in 1982 at the age of 20.

Several songs on his first album, including "The World Is Fire", reflect the rejections and difficulties Hart encountered along the path to getting a recording contract.

Hart's debut album, First Offense, was recorded at Revolution Recording Studios in Manchester, England, in the spring of 1982.

It was produced by Jon Astley, then best known for his work with The Who, and Phil Chapman.

Released in 1983, First Offense featured the US Billboard Top 10 hit song "Sunglasses at Night" (No. 7 ) and Top 20 follow-up single "It Ain't Enough" (No. 17 ).

The album went platinum in the United States and quadruple platinum in Canada.

First Offense initially received a modest response upon its Canadian release.

Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1984, Hart is an inductee of both Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame, and is also a multiple Juno award nominee and winner, including the Diamond Award for his best-selling album Boy in the Box.

He has also been honoured by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).

It was only after garnering US success in the summer of 1984 that he became well-known in his native Canada.

First Offense also featured guitarist Eric Clapton on the record's closing track, "Jenny Fey".

"Jon (Astley, producer) felt there was one song Eric Clapton would really like. So just out of the blue he sent him the song, and lo and behold Eric Clapton was on the phone saying he wanted to play on it and asking how I would mind if he did. I didn't. Eric was the classic gentleman. Here I was, this Canadian kid in England with big-time producers doing my first album and Clapton tells me, 'It's such a pretty song, so easy to play. The type of thing I'd write myself'."

The Juno-award-winning video for "Sunglasses at Night" (directed by Rob Quartly), which featured a futuristic, Orwellian society, helped propel the popularity of the track.

Hart toured the United States and Canada extensively in 1984 and early 1985, first as a supporting act for Culture Club, April Wine, Thomas Dolby, Hall & Oates and Rick Springfield, then later as a headline performer.

First Offense was nominated for Best Album of the Year at that year's ADISQ Awards in Hart's native Quebec, where the singer was also nominated for Best New Artist.

First Offense won the Félix.

Hart's second album was Boy in the Box, released in June 1985, which reached Diamond status in Canada (one million copies sold) by February 1986.

It was the second album by a Canadian artist to do so.

The album featured the hit single "Never Surrender" which spent nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 in Canada and peaked at No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, also earning Hart an ASCAP Award as one of the most played songs of 1985.

"Never Surrender" was the No. 2 song in the year-end Canadian charts in 1985, finishing second to the Northern Lights charity single "Tears Are Not Enough" in which Hart had also participated, alongside veteran Canadian artists Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Bryan Adams.

Subsequent singles all charted in the Canadian and US Top 40 ("Boy in the Box", "Everything in My Heart" and "Eurasian Eyes").

In the US, Boy in the Box peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and went platinum.

Boy in the Box was nominated for a Juno Award as well as an ADISQ Award for Best Album, taking home a Félix for Hart in this category.

"Never Surrender" won the Juno for Best Selling Single of 1985.

Hart was also nominated for the Composer of the Year award at both the Junos and the ADISQ awards, winning a Félix in this field.

He also received nods in the Juno categories of Best Video for "Never Surrender" and Best Male Vocalist of the Year, as well an ADISQ nomination for Concert of the Year.

Hart had little contact with his father, and this is reflected in some of his compositions, such as the 1998 song "Reconcile".

Hart's first experience as a performing artist came at age 11 when he sang "Ben" for Tom Jones in Miami.

He also recorded songs with Paul Anka in Las Vegas during this time period.