Eric Carmen: A Biography

Eric Carmen has been obsessed by music since early childhood. At age 3, he was the youngest student ever enrolled at the Cleveland institute of Music. When he turned 6, he took violin lessons from his aunt, a violinist with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. By age 11, he was playing piano and dreaming about writing his own songs. The arrival of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones inspired him to join a rock band, which he did as a sophomore at Charles F. Brush High School.

While attending John Carroll University, he formed Cyrus Erie, which released a single on Epic records. Cyrus Erie guitarist, Wally Bryson, had been playing with friends Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley in one of Cleveland's must popular bands, the Choir, who scored a minor national hit in 1967 with the single "It's Cold Outside." When Cyrus Erie and the Choir collapsed at the end of the '60s, Eric, Wally, Jim and Dave teamed up to form Raspberries.

Raspberries soon became the most popular rock 'n' roll attraction in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1971, the band signed a national recording contract with Capitol Records, releasing its self-titled debut album the following year. "Go All The Way," soared to No. 5 on the Billboard singles chart. Critics hailed the band's unique twist on Beatlesque power-pop, citing Eric as a pop visionary.

The band's next two albums—1972's Fresh and 1973's Side 3—produced a couple of Top 40 hit singles including "I Wanna Be With You" and "Let's Pretend" and when Jim and Dave quit the band in 1973, they were replaced by drummer Michael McBride and bassist Scott McCarl. The group released one more album, Starting Over, in 1974. It yielded a Top 20 hit single, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)."

Eric Carmen released his first album on Arista in 1975. It produced three Top 40 hit singles, including "All By Myself." He released three more albums on Arista between 1977 and 1980, and had another hit single, "Change of Heart" in 1978. "Almost Paradise (Love Theme from Footloose)" put him back in the Top 10 as a composer in 1984. Eric hit the top of the charts again in 1987 with "Hungry Eyes," written for the film Dirty Dancing.

He followed with another hit single, "Make Me Lose Control" in 1988 and performed on the Dirty Dancing: In Concert tour later that year. He released a new studio album in 1999, titled Winter Dreams in Japan, renamed I Was Born To Love You, for it's release in the U.S. the following year. Eric spent the summer of that year touring with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.

In November 2004, the original Raspberries made a surprise announcement that they were reuniting for a special concert in Cleveland, Ohio. It would be their first performance together in 31 years. "The intention initially was just to play one show," Eric explains. "As we started rehearsing, a number of very interesting things happened—not the least of which was, we sold this first show out in four minutes. It totally knocked the House of Blues for a loop."

The reunited band went on to play 10 sold-out concerts from New York to Los Angeles, entertaining old fans, making new fans and impressing critics along the way. The New York Daily News picked Raspberries' show at the House of Blues in New York City as one of the "Best Concerts of the Year."

"I'd like to think my staying power is a testimonial to damn good songwriting," says Carmen, "My goal has always been to write really, really good songs." Two of Eric's songs, "All By Myself" and "Almost Paradise (Love Theme From Footloose)" are among the most-played songs in U.S. pop history.