Eric Carmen, the renowned vocalist behind "All By Myself" and "Hungry Eyes," passes away at the age of 74

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Eric Carmen, the renowned vocalist behind "All By Myself" and "Hungry Eyes," passes away at the age of 74
"Knowing that his music touched so many people for decades and will be his lasting legacy brought him great joy," his wife explains.

At the age of 74, Eric Carmen, the singer-songwriter behind hits like "Hungry Eyes" and "All By Myself" and former frontman of the Raspberries, passed away.


On his official website, his wife Amy wrote, "Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep."

"Knowing that his music touched so many people for decades and will be his lasting legacy brought him great joy."A line from his 1977 solo album Boats Against The Current, which read, "Love is all that matters... faithful and forever," wrapped up the message.

For many, Carmen is best known for penning the 1975 power ballad "All By Myself," which was subsequently performed by Jamie O'Neal for the movie Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001 and Celine Dion in 1996.Other hits included the song "Hungry Eyes," which was used in the 1987 Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze movie Dirty Dancing.

Carmen's passion in music began at a young age. She was born in 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio. At the age of fifteen, he had received classical piano training from his aunt, who had taught him the violin when he was six. He had always wanted to write his own songs.

At the age of fifteen, he started teaching himself how to play the guitar. He studied for four months, immersed in a Beatles chord book.Later, Carmen started thinking about pursuing a career in music while attending John Carroll University.

Carmen became well-known when she started the power pop group the Raspberries in the early 1970s, following a brief stint with the band Cyrus Erie and the Choir in the late 1960s. Jim Bonfanti and Wally Bryson, his bandmates, joined him later, followed by Dave Smalley when John Aleksic left.In 1972, they published their debut album Raspberries, which featured singles like "Go All The Way" and "Overnight Sensation" that were later banned by the BBC due to its sexually suggestive lyrics but were eventually included on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 soundtrack in 2014.

The band disbanded in 1975 after recording four albums together, and Carmen went on to pursue a successful solo career in the then-emerging soft rock genre.

Carmen is also a songwriter; she contributed to the Footloose soundtrack with "Almost Paradise," "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again," and "Make Me Lose Control."

Amy, his third wife of eight years, and Clayton and Kathryn, his adult children from his second marriage, survive Carmen.