ll By Myself" was an appropriate title for Eric Carmen's first solo hit after leaving the pop group The Raspberries. While the group had reached the Billboard Top 10 in 1972 with the #5 hit "Go All The Way," Eric was actually able to go farther along the way be sending his first hit to #2.

First charting on Jan. 17, 1976, "All By Myself" was former Raspberries lead singer Eric Carmen's first of three Top 40 hits from his eponymous 1975 debut album, peaking at #2 for three weeks. His Eric Carmen LP, first charting on Nov. 15, 1975, peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart, and remained on the chart for an impressive 51 weeks. It was certified gold by the RIAA on Oct. 27, 1977.

Eric Carmen showed an early talent for music, and his parents enrolled him in the Cleveland Institute of Music at age three. He dropped out at age six but reconsidered the choice later in life. As he told Gordon Pagoda in an Eric Carmen website interview, "Around age eleven, I convinced my parents to let me go back to the Institute of Music and study piano. I went through seven years of classical training in four years."

In 1970 Carmen formed The Raspberries with David Smalley and Jim Bonfanti, two former members of the 1960s group The Choir. After several hit singles, the last of which was the #18 "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" in 1974, Eric embarked on a solo career. For his first hit under a solo deal with Clive Davis' Arista Records he returned to his classical past for inspiration when writing the song "All By Myself." Carmen explained how the hit came together, "The song started with the solo. It started four bars at a time. Eventually, over a period of two months, that entire interlude had been written. Then my quest was to put this in the middle of an actual song. Then it was a matter of trying to figure out what kind of song and how could I do it. I was listening to Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto and I heard the melody which I used for the verse."

However Carmen looked to his more recent past to complete the single. "I needed a chorus. I went back and listened to a song that I had written in 1973 called 'Let's Pretend' for the Raspberries... And I just took those notes and took it from there. I thought, 'Let's Pretend' was a nice melody. The song didn't go quite as far as I thought it should have. I'll go back and steal from myself for this."

Entering the charts at #85 "All By Myself" reached the #2 position in its 12th chart week, spending three weeks in the runner-up position. Eric's follow-up, also from his self-titled 1975 debut LP and again based on a Rachmaninov piece, was "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again." It just missed the Top 10, peaking at #11, while it did top the Adult Contemporary charts. In Sept. 1976, a third single from his debut LP, "Sunrise," was released, but only managed to rise to #34. Although Eric's voice absent from the Top 10 following "All By Myself," his songs still peppered the upper reaches of the charts. Actor Shaun Cassidy took two Eric Carmen songs to the Top 10 in 1977, the #3 "That's Rock 'N Roll" and the #7 "Hey Deanie." In 1984, Carmen wrote the love theme for the movie Footloose and saw "Almost Paradise" reach #7 for Loverboy singer Mike Reno and Heart vocalist Ann Wilson. Another movie, Dirty Dancing, returned Eric to the Top 10 as a performer when "Hungry Eyes" reached #4 in 1988. Later that year, he soared to #3 with "Make Me Lose Control."

Carmen passed away in his sleep on March 11, 2024. He was 74. "It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy," his wife Amy posted on social media.

- Christopher G. Feldman, The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles, Billboard, 2000.

 

 Reader's Comments

No comments so far, be the first to comment.