THE NEW YORK TIMES – Eric Carmen, whose plaintive vocals soared above the crunching guitars of the 1970s power-pop pioneers the Raspberries before his soft rock crooning made him a mainstay of 1980s music, has died. He was 74.
His death was announced on his website by his wife, Amy Carmen. She did not give a cause and said only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend.”
The Raspberries, which formed in Cleveland, burst onto the American rock scene in 1972 with their self-titled debut album, featuring a raspberry-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker and their biggest hit: “Go All the Way,” a provocative song for its day, sung from the point of view of a young woman.
Dave Swanson of the website Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the definitive power pop song of all time,” as the emerging style, known for grafting bright ’60s-era vocal harmonies onto the heavy guitar riffs of the ’70s, would come to be called.
It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen. It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy. “Love Is All That Matters…Faithful and Forever”—Amy Carmen #ericcarmen — EricCarmenForum (@EricCarmenForum) March 12, 2024
“The opening Who-like blast leads into a very Beatles-esque verse, before landing in some forgotten Beach Boys chorus,” he wrote. “Thus was the magic of the Raspberries song craft. They were able to take the best parts and ideas from the previous decade, and morph them into something new, yet familiar.”
The Raspberries’ second album, “Fresh,” also released in 1972, would be its highest charting, at No. 36. It featured two Top 40 hits, “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend.”
The band, known for its matching suits and clean image, was dismissed by some as passé.
“Almost every band had hair down to their waist and beards and ripped jeans and they looked like a bunch of hippies, and I wanted to get as far away from that as I could,” Mr. Carmen said in a 2017 interview with the Observer …
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