By 1987, Eric Carmen had moved back to Ohio, where he was pretty much out of the music business except to record a duet, "As Long As We Got Each Other," with Louise Mandrel (who'd also released cover versions of "Maybe My Baby" and "I Wanna Hear It From Your Lips") and to record "The Rock Stops Here," a song played locally touting Cleveland as the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But then came Dirty Dancing…

Out of nowhere, a movie that by all realistic expectations should have been in obscure video bins 15 minutes after its release caught the nation entirely by surprise. Jimmy Ienner called with a song he thought Eric might like to record for the soundtrack on which lenner was serving as executive producer. The movie was a monster hit, the soundtrack screamed up the album charts, and when the smoke cleared, Eric's "Hungry Eyes" was the #4 song in the nation, the second biggest hit of his career. When Eric and lyricist Dean Pitchford reunited, this time with lenner handling production duties, "Make Me Lose Control" settled in at #3, making it the second biggest hit of his career.