‘All By Myself’ Singer Eric Carmen Passes Away

Eric Carmen, the 70s-era singer best known for his ballad “All By Myself,” has passed away at 74 according to his wife.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” his wife, Amy Carmen, wrote on the singer’s website and spotlighted by the Daily Caller. “Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep, over the weekend. It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy. Please respect the family’s privacy as we mourn our enormous loss. ‘Love Is All That Matters … Faithful and Forever.’”

Bursting onto the music scene in the 1970s as a member of the band Raspberries, Carmen later dove into solo projects that produced hits like “All By Myself,” a song that has racked up credits in dozens of movies and TV episodes and hundreds of millions of plays on YouTube and streaming services. He also produced “Hungry Eyes,” with rose to fourth on the Billboard Top 100 charts and made its way into the soundtrack for Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in 1987’s “Dirty Dancing.”

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Born in Cleveland and raised in nearby Lyndburg, Carmen’s Russian Jewish family cultivated his early musical talents, enrolling him at the Cleveland Institute of Music at the age of three. He studied the violin, piano, and guitar and by high school was accompanying several bands, and during college joined The Choir, a popular underground Cleveland band that connected him with future Raspberries members Jim Bonfanti, Wally Bryson, and Dave Smalley.

The quartet elbowed their way into the 1970s power pop era, edging out peers like The Cars and Cheap Trick on the charts with songs like “I Wanna Be With You,” “Don’t Want to Say Goodbye,” and “Go All The Way” which peaked at the number five position in 1972, selling one million copies and earning the band a gold disc.

By 1975, Carmen announced his departure as singer for Raspberries, shifting his focus away from pop rock and into the melodic ballad territory that produced hits like “All By Myself” and “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again,” a successful follow-up act. Mixed reviews on subsequent albums hampered Carmen’s commercial success, though he earned more than a working musician’s salary through projects like “Almost Paradise,” the love theme from the movie “Footloose.”

Carmen is survived by his third wife Amy Carmen and two children Kathryn and Clayton with second wife Susan Brown.