Yesterday we got the sad news that Eric Carmen died over the weekend at the age of 74. He was the lead singer of the Raspberries, who had a major hit with “Go All the Way” in the early 70s. He also had a successful solo career, with hit songs like “All by Myself”, “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”, “Hungry Eyes”, and “Make Me Lose Control”.
He was born and raised in Cleveland and showed musical talent from a very young age. He started violin lessons at age 6 and later studied piano and guitar. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, Carmen was singing and playing piano in local rock bands.
Carmen started getting serious about being a professional musician while in college. In 1970, he formed the Raspberries, who were eventually signed to Capital Records. With their pop-rock sound, they had a run of success in the early 1970s. The band was known for its clean-cut image, bringing them teenybopper fame and ridicule from mainstream media outlets who saw them as uncool. Carmen was the lead singer of the group and wrote or co-wrote all of their hits. Their biggest hit was “Go All the Way”, which sold more than a million copies and earned them their only certified Gold Record.
After the Raspberries broke up in 1975, Carmen started a solo career, favoring soft rock and power ballads. In 1976, he had 2 hits with his first solo releases, “All by Myself” and “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”. In the 1980s, some of his biggest hits came from movie soundtracks. He wrote “Almost Paradise” for Footloose and wrote and sang “Hungry Eyes” for Dirty Dancing. Various artists, including Celine Dion, Shaun Cassidy, and John Travolta, covered his songs.
In 2004, the Raspberries reformed for a series of sold-out performances all across the United States. The band recorded a live album of their hits at The House of Blues on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. The show and the album both received critical acclaim. Carmen released his first new song in 15 years in 2013 as part of a best-of compilation.
Yesterday, Carmen’s wife Amy announced on his website that he died “over the weekend” in his sleep, giving neither a cause nor a specific date of death. Learn more here.