NEW YORK — Singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, who fronted the 1970s power-pop group the Raspberries and later had towering pop hits like “All by Myself” and “Hungry Eyes” from the soundtrack, has died. “Dirty Dancing” hits. He was 74.
His death was announced on his website by his wife Amy Carmen, who did not reveal the cause, saying only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend”.
“It brought him great joy to know that over the decades his music has touched so many and will be his lasting legacy,” the statement read.
Carmen had 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including three in the Top 10. The Raspberries, who formed in Cleveland, had four Top 40 singles, including the Top 5 hit “Go All the Way.”
Formed in 1970, the Raspberries made four albums for Capitol Records and were known for their matching suits at a time when most bands had abandoned them.
“Almost every group had waist-length hair and beards and ripped jeans and looked like a bunch of hippies, and I wanted to get as far away from that as possible,” Carmen told the Observer in 2017.
The Raspberries’ second album, Fresh, released in 1972, would be their highest charting single, reaching number 36 and featuring two top 40 hits, “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend”.
The Raspberries ended their first run in 1975, two years after creative differences precipitated the departure of drummer Jim Bonfanti and bassist Dave Smalley.
Carmen then embarked on a solo career and his self-titled debut featured the towering hit “All By Myself,” which sold more than 1 million copies in the US and reached No. 2 in 1976. His other hits included “Make Me Lose Control” — a No. 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 — and he co-wrote “Almost Paradise,” sung by Mike Reno and Anne Wilson, which reached No. 7 in 1984.
Carmen’s albums include the autobiographical ‘Boats Against the Current’ from 1977, ‘Change of Heart’ from 1978 and ‘Tonight You’re Mine’ from 1980. His songs ‘Nowhere to Hide’ and ‘Desperate Fools’ are soft rock classics.
In 1984, he released a second self-titled album, teaming up with Bob Gaudio of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. There was the single “I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips.” In 1987, he had another huge hit when his recording of “Hungry Eyes” was featured on the 1987 “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, reaching the Top 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and rocketing the album to sales of over 32 million copies .
Carmen was born in Cleveland and got into music early, taking violin lessons at age 6 and later learning piano and guitar. He was a student at John Carroll University when he joined a local band called Cyrus Erie. He and another member of Cyrus Erie, guitarist Wally Bryson, joined forces with former members of a band called the Choir to form the Raspberries, combining melodies, guitar riffs and lush ballads.
He and the Raspberries reunited for a few shows in late 2004 at Cleveland’s House of Blues, leading to dates across the country the following year and the album “Live on Sunset Strip,” which featured notes from a fan no less by Bruce Springsteen, who hailed the Raspberries as “The great underrated masters of power pop.”
“It’s more satisfying to get on stage and play with these guys now than it’s ever been,” Carmen told The Plain Dealer in 2007. “It’s also nice that after 30-odd years, the most in the end, we seem to be commanding the respect of the media and people who maybe didn’t quite get it the first time around.”
