Eric Carmen, ‘Hungry Eyes’ singer, dies at 74

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Eric Carmen, who fronted the Raspberries and sang the Dirty Dancing hit Hungry Eyes, has died at the age of 74.

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His wife, Amy Carmen, shared the news on the singer’s website.

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“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” she wrote. “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.”

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Amy concluded her post with a reference to Carmen’s song Love Is All That Matters, writing, “Love Is All That Matters… Faithful and Forever.”

Carmen achieved fame first as the frontman of Cleveland band the Raspberries in the 1970s, which pumped out hits like Let’s Pretend, Overnight Sensation (Hit Record), I Wanna Be With You and Go All the Way.

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The band was known for its squeaky-clean image that stood in stark contrast to their long-haired contemporaries.

“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,” Carmen said in a 2017 interview with the Observer.

After their split in 1975, Carmen continued his success as a solo artist, releasing five LPs between 1975 and 1984 and penning Almost Paradise, which was sung by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson and appeared on the Footloose soundtrack. He found renewed fame in 1987 when Hungry Eyes became a smash hit from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

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His ’70s track All by Myself was used in several films, including To Die For, Clueless, Almost Famous and Bridget Jones’s Diary, and was covered by Celine Dion.

Carmen also appeared as a member of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band.

After their split, the Raspberries briefly reunited in the early 2000s. Carmen told Entertainment Weekly they were able to regroup because “everybody is grown-up now.”

“People used to ask me ‘Why don’t you guys get together and just play one gig?’ Because it takes the same amount of preparation for one good show as a six-month tour,” he told the magazine. “I never wanted to be the guy to put this band back on a stage and pop everyone’s bubble and have them go home saying ‘Oh, they weren’t that good.’ Plus, it may have taken that long to forget the drunken parking-lot fight that marked the band’s end. But 30 years have passed, and everybody is a grown-up now, with a life.”

Tributes poured in for Carmen on social media following the news of his death.

“Awful news. Eric Carmen has died,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley wrote on X. “Although known to many for writing radio hits like ‘All By Myself’ and others, Eric was a true rocker at heart. His voice had elements of McCartney and Steve Marriott. The Raspberries did shows with us. A killer band live & I loved their records.”

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[email protected]

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Eric Carmen, who fronted the Raspberries and sang the Dirty Dancing hit Hungry Eyes, has died at the age of 74.

Article content

His wife, Amy Carmen, shared the news on the singer’s website.

Article content

“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” she wrote. “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.”

Article content

Amy concluded her post with a reference to Carmen’s song Love Is All That Matters, writing, “Love Is All That Matters… Faithful and Forever.”

Carmen achieved fame first as the frontman of Cleveland band the Raspberries in the 1970s, which pumped out hits like Let’s Pretend, Overnight Sensation (Hit Record), I Wanna Be With You and Go All the Way.

Article content

Article content

The band was known for its squeaky-clean image that stood in stark contrast to their long-haired contemporaries.

“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,” Carmen said in a 2017 interview with the Observer.

After their split in 1975, Carmen continued his success as a solo artist, releasing five LPs between 1975 and 1984 and penning Almost Paradise, which was sung by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson and appeared on the Footloose soundtrack. He found renewed fame in 1987 when Hungry Eyes became a smash hit from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

Article content

His ’70s track All by Myself was used in several films, including To Die For, Clueless, Almost Famous and Bridget Jones’s Diary, and was covered by Celine Dion.

Carmen also appeared as a member of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band.

After their split, the Raspberries briefly reunited in the early 2000s. Carmen told Entertainment Weekly they were able to regroup because “everybody is grown-up now.”

“People used to ask me ‘Why don’t you guys get together and just play one gig?’ Because it takes the same amount of preparation for one good show as a six-month tour,” he told the magazine. “I never wanted to be the guy to put this band back on a stage and pop everyone’s bubble and have them go home saying ‘Oh, they weren’t that good.’ Plus, it may have taken that long to forget the drunken parking-lot fight that marked the band’s end. But 30 years have passed, and everybody is a grown-up now, with a life.”

Tributes poured in for Carmen on social media following the news of his death.

“Awful news. Eric Carmen has died,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley wrote on X. “Although known to many for writing radio hits like ‘All By Myself’ and others, Eric was a true rocker at heart. His voice had elements of McCartney and Steve Marriott. The Raspberries did shows with us. A killer band live & I loved their records.”

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[email protected]

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