Cleveland legend Eric Carmen, ‘one of the greatest American songwriters of all time,’ dies at 74

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – David Spero, Eric Carmen’s friend for more than sixty years and his former manager, remembers hearing “All By Myself” for the first time.

“I’d gone over to his apartment and he sat at the piano and he played that song for me,” remembered Spero. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a smash.’”

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Carmen graduated from Brush High School in Lyndhurst in 1967. Just a few years later, he graduated to the Billboard charts, first with a top ten hit “Go All The Way” with the Raspberries.

After the group broke up in 1975, Carmen had three more top ten hits as a solo performer, including “Hungry Eyes” from the movie “Dirty Dancing.”

His music also influenced generations of musicians.

“Bruce Springsteen said, when he was making ‘Born to Run,’ he listened to ‘The Raspberries Greatest Hits’ on his way to work every day,” Spero said. “Because [Springsteen] said this was the greatest pop record ever, and that’s what he was going to do with ‘Born to Run.’”

Carmen and the Raspberries are part of an exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Carmen’s handwritten lyrics to songs like “All By Myself,” “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” and “Go All The Way.”

“Why were the Raspberries, particularly here in Cleveland, so important?’ asked Jason Hanley, Vice President of Education and Visitor Engagement of the Rock Hall. “They were one of the first power pop groups, ever. Bands were kind of taking what the Beatles had done in the sixties and turning it into great rock and roll.”

“I got him into the Ringo and the All-Star Band so, touring with a Beatle, it doesn’t really get any better than that, it’s pretty cool and I think for him, it was a dream come true,” said Spero.

That dream took him from Cleveland, around the world, and right back to Cleveland.

“That’s the music that fans are going to listen to for generations to come, classic rock and roll songs, right out of the heartland in Cleveland,” said Hanley, “While it’s a terrible, sad loss to think of this I also just feel uplifted thinking of the music he created in his career both with the Raspberries and as a solo artist.”

A double CD, compiled by a friend, shows Carmen’s influence in all genres of music.

“Diana Ross, Vanessa Williams, Olivia Newton-John, Jewel, Frank Sinatra (I think you’ve heard of him), Sheryl Crow, Hank Williams Junior, Celine Dion, Motley Crue. It just goes on and on the people who covered his songs,” said Spero. “I think when all is said and done for Eric Carmen, he’s going to go down as one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.”

Carmen married and had two children, divorced, and then married the former Amy Hasten Murphy in 2016, a meteorologist who had worked in Cleveland.

The couple had moved to Arizona recently, where Amy announced Carmen had passed away over the weekend.

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