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Eric Howard Carmen (born August 11, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. He was first known as the lead vocalist of the
Raspberries The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus '' Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with w ...
. He had numerous hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Raspberries (who had a million-selling single with " Go All the Way"), and then with his solo career, including hits such as "
All by Myself "All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen released in 1975. The verse is based on the second movement (''Adagio sostenuto'') of Sergei Rachmaninoff's circa 1900–1901 '' Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor'', Opus 18. The ...
", " Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", "
She Did It "She Did It" is a song written and originally recorded by Eric Carmen in 1977. Carmen's single was a Top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching number 23. "She Did It" was covered in 1981 by actor and singer Michael Damian, who reac ...
", "
Hungry Eyes "Hungry Eyes" is a song performed by American musician Eric Carmen, a former member of the band Raspberries, and was featured in the film ''Dirty Dancing'' (1987). The song was recorded at Beachwood Studios in Beachwood, Ohio in 1987. "Hungry E ...
", and " Make Me Lose Control".


Early life

From a family of
Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
immigrants, Carmen was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and grew up in
Lyndhurst, Ohio Lyndhurst is a small city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The population was 14,050 at the 2020 census. A small part of Lyndhurst was originally part of Mayfield Township. History The land currently c ...
. He has been involved with music since early childhood. By the age of two, he was entertaining his parents with impressions of Jimmy Durante and Johnnie Ray. By age three, he was in the
Dalcroze Eurhythmics Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodály method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music to students. Eurhythmics was developed ...
program at the
Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educat ...
. At six years old, he took violin lessons from his aunt Muriel Carmen, who was a violinist in the
Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most o ...
. By age 11, he was playing piano and dreaming about writing his own songs. The arrival of the Beatles and the
Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
altered his dream slightly. By the time he was a sophomore at Charles F. Brush High School, Carmen was playing piano and singing in rock bands including the Fugitives, the Harlequins, the Sounds of Silence, and the Cyrus Erie. Though classically trained in piano, Carmen became a self-taught guitarist. At 15, he started guitar lessons, but when his teacher's approach did not fit with what he wanted, he decided to teach himself. He bought a Beatles chord book and studied guitar for the next four months.


Tenure with The Raspberries

Carmen became serious about being a musician while attending
John Carroll University John Carroll University is a private Jesuit university in University Heights, Ohio. It is primarily an undergraduate, liberal arts institution accompanied by the John M. and Mary Jo Boler College of Business. John Carroll has an enrollment of 3, ...
. He joined a band named Cyrus Erie, which recorded several commercially unsuccessful singles for
Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical mu ...
. Cyrus Erie guitarist
Wally Bryson The Raspberries were an American pop rock band formed in 1970 from Cleveland, Ohio. They had a run of success in the early 1970s music scene with their pop rock sound, which AllMusic later described as featuring "exquisitely crafted melodies a ...
had been playing with friends Jim Bonfanti and
Dave Smalley Dave Smalley is an American musician, best known as the lead singer for the hardcore punk bands DYS, Dag Nasty, and All and as lead singer/guitarist with Down by Law. He is known for his influence on pop punk music and his early contributio ...
in one of Cleveland's most popular bands, the Choir, which scored a minor national hit in 1967 with the single "It's Cold Outside". When Cyrus Erie and the Choir disbanded at the end of the 1960s, Carmen, Bryson, Bonfanti, and Smalley teamed up to form
Raspberries The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus '' Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with w ...
, a rock and roll band that was among the chief exponents of the early 1970s
power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...
style. Carmen was the lead singer of the group, and wrote or co-wrote all their hit songs. In 1975, after the breakup of Raspberries, he started his solo career, de-emphasizing harder rock elements in favor of soft rock and power ballads. In 2004, Carmen, along with original Raspberries members Jim Bonfanti, Wally Bryson, and Dave Smalley, re-formed the band for a series of sold-out live performances in cities across the United States. On that tour, the Raspberries recorded a live album of their hits at The House of Blues on Sunset Strip, in Hollywood. Both the show and album received critical acclaim. Carmen himself has stated that he planned to write new harder-edged songs for the band to perform in the same vein as those that the Raspberries performed in the 1970s.


Solo career

Carmen's first two solo singles were chart hits in 1976. Both were built around themes by
Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
. The first of these singles, "
All by Myself "All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen released in 1975. The verse is based on the second movement (''Adagio sostenuto'') of Sergei Rachmaninoff's circa 1900–1901 '' Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor'', Opus 18. The ...
" – based on Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 – hit number 2 in the United States, and number 12 in the United Kingdom where it was his only charting hit. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the
R.I.A.A. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
in April 1976. The follow-up single, " Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" – based on the main theme of the third movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 – reached number 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and hit number one on the US Adult Contemporary Chart, as well as number nine on the
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
chart. In the UK, Dana took it to number 31 and in Australia
Mark Holden Mark Ronald Holden (born 27 April 1954) is an Australian singer, actor, TV personality, record producer, songwriter, and barrister. He was a pop star in the 1970s and had four top 20 hit singles, " Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" (May 197 ...
took it to number 13. Those songs featured on his 1975 self-titled debut album, along with " That's Rock and Roll", a number 3 hit single for singer
Shaun Cassidy Shaun Paul Cassidy (born September 27, 1958) is an American singer, actor, writer, and producer. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including ''American Gothic'', '' Roar'' and ''Invasion''. Cassidy currently serves as ...
. The album made number 21 on the ''Billboard'' album chart and was certified gold in 1977 for sales of more than 500,000 copies. Carmen's second album, ''
Boats Against the Current ''Boats Against the Current'' is a 1977 album by Eric Carmen. The title is taken from a line in the novel ''The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” It was ...
'', came out in the summer of 1977 and received mixed reviews. It featured backup players such as
Burton Cummings Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for leading The Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career. Cummings has ...
,
Andrew Gold Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold played on scores of rec ...
,
Bruce Johnston Bruce Arthur Johnston (born Benjamin Baldwin; June 27, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who is a member of the Beach Boys. Johnston also collaborated on many records with Terry Melcher (his bandmate in Br ...
and Nigel Olsson. The album spent 13 weeks in the Billboard Album chart, peaking number 45. It also produced the Top 20 single "
She Did It "She Did It" is a song written and originally recorded by Eric Carmen in 1977. Carmen's single was a Top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching number 23. "She Did It" was covered in 1981 by actor and singer Michael Damian, who reac ...
", but the title track only managed to scrape the bottom of the chart. The title track was later covered by
Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...
on her album ''
Totally Hot ''Totally Hot'' is the tenth studio album by British-Australian singer Olivia Newton-John, released on 21 November 1978. Commercially, it became her first top-ten album on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart since ''Have You Never Been Mellow'' (1975). ...
''. A third single taken from the album, "Marathon Man", became his first solo single not to hit the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. However,
Shaun Cassidy Shaun Paul Cassidy (born September 27, 1958) is an American singer, actor, writer, and producer. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including ''American Gothic'', '' Roar'' and ''Invasion''. Cassidy currently serves as ...
again made the Top 10 in 1978 with Carmen's "
Hey Deanie "Hey Deanie" is a song written by Eric Carmen. It was a popular hit single by Shaun Cassidy that was released the last week of November, 1977 from his album, '' Born Late''. It was his third and final top 10 hit, peaked at number seven for two we ...
". For several weeks in the fall of 1977, Carmen had three compositions charting concurrently on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Cassidy's two big hits and Carmen's own "
She Did It "She Did It" is a song written and originally recorded by Eric Carmen in 1977. Carmen's single was a Top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching number 23. "She Did It" was covered in 1981 by actor and singer Michael Damian, who reac ...
". Carmen followed up with two more albums. Despite declining chart fortunes, the single "Change of Heart" broke into the Pop Top 20, and reached number 6 at AC in late 1978, with this hit also being covered by Samantha Sang on her '' Emotion'' LP, but in 1980, after the release of the album "Tonight You're Mine" and single "It Hurts Too Much" (number 75 Billboard Top 100) he temporarily withdrew from the music industry. Four years later, Carmen resurfaced on Geffen Records in 1985 with a second self-titled album and a sizeable comeback hit " I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips". The single hit the Adult Contemporary Top 10 as well as the Pop Top 40. The follow-up single, "I'm Through with Love", also climbed the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and reached the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary chart. Another track from the album, "Maybe My Baby", later became a Country hit for
Louise Mandrell Thelma Louise Mandrell (born July 13, 1954) is an American country music singer. She is the younger sister of fellow country singer Barbara Mandrell, and older sister of actress Irlene Mandrell. Louise had a successful singing career in countr ...
reaching number 8 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. "I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips" was also covered by Mandrell only managing to peak at 35 on the same chart. In 1987, Carmen's contribution to the hit movie '' Dirty Dancing'', "
Hungry Eyes "Hungry Eyes" is a song performed by American musician Eric Carmen, a former member of the band Raspberries, and was featured in the film ''Dirty Dancing'' (1987). The song was recorded at Beachwood Studios in Beachwood, Ohio in 1987. "Hungry E ...
", hit number 2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and also returned him to the Pop Top 10. "Reason To Try", a further contribution to the '' One Moment in Time'' compilation album of songs recorded for the Seoul Summer Olympics, kept Carmen's profile high in 1988, during which the nostalgic " Make Me Lose Control" also returned him to the number one position on the Adult Contemporary chart – where it stayed for three straight weeks – as well as number 3 on Billboard's Hot 100. The year 2000 saw the stateside release of '' I Was Born to Love You'', which had been released in 1998 only in Japan as ''Winter Dreams''. Carmen eschewed the use of a band on the recording, playing most of the instruments and programming the drum parts himself. The album did not find a large audience, but Carmen has continued to enjoy success placing songs with other artists over the years. In 2000, he toured with Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band. On December 24, 2013, the first new recording in over 15 years by Carmen titled "Brand New Year" was released. The track, written and recorded in November/December 2013 in Ohio and Los Angeles, was issued via a gratis download by Legacy Recordings as a special "Christmas gift", to herald the March 2014 arrival of a 30 track career retrospective entitled ''The Essential Eric Carmen.''.


Personal life

Carmen moved from Los Angeles back to Gates Mills in northeast Ohio in the 1990s. In 2016, Carmen married former newscaster Amy Murphy.


Discography


Studio albums


Compilation albums


Charted singles


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carmen, Eric 1949 births Living people Musicians from Cleveland American male singer-songwriters American pop rock singers American rock songwriters American soft rock musicians American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Jewish American songwriters John Carroll University alumni Singer-songwriters from Ohio American rock guitarists American male guitarists American pop guitarists American rock keyboardists Guitarists from Ohio 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists People from Lyndhurst, Ohio People from Gates Mills, Ohio Ballad musicians 20th-century American male singers 21st-century American male singers 20th-century American keyboardists Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band members