Eric Carmen

Eric Carmen, ca.1991

Eric Carmen (born August 11, 1949 in Cleveland , Ohio ) is an American singer , songwriter , guitarist and pianist . His most famous songs include All by Myself (1975) and Hungry Eyes (1987).

Career

Eric Carmen was the singer of The Raspberries , which he founded in Cleveland in 1970 , for five years . The group had a few hits but split in 1975. After that, Carmen went on solo.

He became famous in 1976 with his pop adaptation All by Myself of the second movement (Adagio sostenuto) of Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor . The song has been covered by countless artists over the years, including Shirley Bassey , Ray Conniff , Tom Jones , Eartha Kitt , Il Divo , Carmen McRae and Celine Dion . The subsequent hit Never Gonna Fall In Love Again (1976) is also based on a Rachmaninoff composition, the 3rd movement from his 2nd symphony. In 1977 he had a hit with the song She Did It . Until 1980, Carmen regularly recorded LPs for the Arista record label , which, however, continued to sell less. After a break of several years, the album Eric Carmen was released on the Geffen label in 1985 .

After things had calmed down around him in the 1980s, Carmen made a big comeback in 1987 with the US top five hits Hungry Eyes from the film Dirty Dancing (authors John DeNicola and Franke Previte ) and Make Me Lose Control . After that, however, no new studio album followed, and Carmen's own career petered out again. However, he wrote songs for numerous other artists. In 1997, Celine Dion turned All By Myself into another big global hit. Carmen released the little-noticed album I Was Born to Love You in 2000 , which was released in Japan in 1998 under the title Winter Dreams .

In 2004 Carmen brought the raspberries back together and went on tour with them. Among other things, they opened concerts by Bruce Springsteen in the USA .

Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1975	Eric Carmen Arista	-	UK58 (1 week) UK	US21st gold (51 weeks)US	First published: November 1975 Producer: Jimmy Ienner
1977	Boats Against the Current Arista	-	-	US45 (13 weeks) US	First published: August 1977 Producer: Eric Carmen
1978	Change of Heart Arista	-	-	US137 (12 weeks) US	First published: October 1978 Producer: Eric Carmen
1980	Tonight You're Mine Arista	-	-	US160 (5 weeks) US	First published: June 1980 Producer: Harry Maslin
1985	Eric Carmen Geffen	-	-	US158 (10 weeks) US	First published: December 1984 Producers: Bob Gaudio , Don Gehman

More studio albums

• 1997: Winter Dreams (Japan only)
• 2000: I Was Born to Love You (US release of Winter Dreams )

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1976	Raspberries' Best Feat. Eric Carmen Capitol	-	-	US138 (4 weeks) US	First release: May 1976 The Raspberries feat. Eric Carmen Producer: Jimmy Ienner
1988	The Best of Eric Carmen Arista	-	-	US59 (20 weeks) US	First published: May 1988

More compilations

• 1977: All by Myself
• 1997: The Definitive Collection
• 1999: All by Myself: The Best of Eric Carmen (release: December 10th)
• 2006: Make Me Lose Control (release: April 31)
• 2014: The Essential (2 CDs; release: March 25th)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1975	All by Myself Eric Carmen (1975)	-	UK12 (7 weeks) UK	US2 gold (19 weeks)US	First published: December 1975 Author: Eric Carmen
1976	Never Gonna Fall in Love Again Eric Carmen (1975)	-	-	US11 (14 weeks) US	First published: April 1976 Author: Eric Carmen
	Sunrise Eric Carmen (1975)	-	-	US34 (10 weeks) US	First published: July 1976 Author: Eric Carmen
1977	She Did It Boats Against the Current	-	-	US23 (16 weeks) US	First published: August 1977 Author: Eric Carmen
	Boats Against the Current Boats Against the Current	-	-	US88 (3 weeks) US	First published: December 1977 Author: Eric Carmen
1978	Change of Heart Change of Heart	-	-	US19 (16 weeks) US	First published: September 1978 Author: Eric Carmen
1979	Baby, I need your lovin ' change of heart	-	-	US62 (5 weeks) US	First published: January 1979 Authors: Holland – Dozier – Holland Original: The Four Tops , 1964
1980	It Hurts Too Much Tonight You're Mine	-	-	US75 (2 weeks) US	First published: June 1980 Author: Eric Carmen
1985	I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips Eric Carmen (1984)	-	-	US35 (11 weeks) US	First published: December 1984 Authors: Dean Pitchford , Eric Carmen
	I'm Through with Love Eric Carmen (1984)	-	-	US87 (3 weeks) US	First published: March 1985 Author: Eric Carmen
1987	Hungry Eyes Dirty Dancing (Soundtrack)	DE17 (13 weeks) DE	UK82 gold (11 weeks)UK	US4 (25 weeks) US	First release: October 1987 from the soundtrack of the film Dirty Dancing Authors: Franke Previte , John DeNicola
1988	Make Me Lose Control The Best of Eric Carmen	-	UK93 (2 weeks) UK	US3 (20 weeks) US	First published: May 1988 Authors: Dean Pitchford, Eric Carmen
	Reason to Try 1988 Summer Olympics Album One Moment in Time	-	-	US87 (3 weeks) US	First published: September 1988 Authors: Jon Lind, Phil Galdston

More singles

• 1972: Don't Want to Say Goodbye (Raspberries feat.Eric Carmen)
• 1976: That's Rock'n Roll (release: January)
• 1976: Sunrise (Live at the Roxy, March 1976) (Release: July)
• 1978: Marathon Man (release: March)
• 1979: Haven't We Come a Long Way (released January)
• 1980: All for Love (release: August)
• 1980: Foolin 'Myself (release: November)
• 1986: The Rock Stops Here
• 1989: Almost Paradise (with Merry Clayton )
• 2014: Brand New Year

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums DE UK US
2. ↑ ^{a b c} gold / platinum databases: UK US

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Eric Carmen at Allmusic (English)
• Eric Carmen at Discogs (English)
• Eric Carmen in the Internet Movie Database (English)