Eric Carmen, All By Myself and Hungry Eyes singer, dies aged 74

Eric Carmen, the former Raspberries frontman and the singer-songerwriter behind hits including “Hungry Eyes” and “All By Myself”, has died aged 74.

“Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep,” his wife, Amy, announced on his official website.

“It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy.”

The message concluded with a quote from his 1977 solo album Boats Against the Current: “Love is all that matters… faithful and forever.”

To many, Carmen was best known for writing the 1975 power ballad “All By Myself”. It was covered by Celine Dion in 1996, and again in 2001 by Jamie O’Neal for the film Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Other hits included “Hungry Eyes”, which featured in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.

Carmen was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1949 and showed an interest in music in early childhood. After taking violin lessons from his aunt, aged six, he became classically trained in piano by age 15 and dreamed of writing his own songs.

He began teaching himself to play the guitar at 15 and spent four months burying himself in learning a Beatles chord book.

Later, as a student at John Carroll University, Carmen began considering a career as a musician.

After a spell with the band Cyrus Erie ended in the late Sixties, Carmen rose to fame after founding the power pop group the Raspberries in the early 1970s. He was joined by bandmates Jim Bonfanti and Wally Bryson, and then later by Dave Smalley after the departure of John Aleksic.

They released their debut album Raspberries in 1972, and chart hits included “Go All the Way” – later banned by the BBC for sexually suggestive lyrics, but included on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 soundtrack in 2014 – and “Overnight Sensation”.

After four albums together, the band broke up in 1975 and Carmen embarked on a solo career, achieving success in the emerging soft rock movement.

As a songwriter, Carmen also wrote “Almost Paradise” from the Footloose soundtrack, as well as the tracks “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again” and “Make Me Lose Control”.

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