Eric Carmen

Eric Carmen is an American singer-songwriter who learned to play music as a child with study at the Cleveland Institute of Music and his aunt, Muriel Carmen, who played violin with the Cleveland Orchestra. He performed in bands during his high school years and took further study at John Carroll University. After some solo singles including 'It's Cold Outside' in 1967, he became lead singer of The Raspberries along with Wally Bryson, Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley. They had two incarnations, from 1970 to 1975 and 2004 to 2009.

Carmen's eponymous debut solo release in 1976 went to number 21 on the Billboard 200 but he had more success with singles from the album, each drawn from a theme by Sergei Rachmaninov: 'All By Myself' reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number six on the Adult Contemporary Chart and number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, and 'Never Gonna Fall in Love Again' was a number one Adult Contemporary hit and went to number eleven on the Hot 100.

He's had ten singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart including 'Change of Heart', which hit number five and reached number 19 on the Hot 100 in 1978, 'I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips', which peaked at number ten in 1985, and 'Make Me Lose Control', which went to number one and hit number three on the Hot 100 in 1988. He wrote 'Almost Paradise', with lyrics by Dean Pitchford, the love theme from the 1984 Kevin Bacon film 'Footloose', which earned them a Grammy Award nomination along with several other songwriters. It was performed by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson in the original picture and when it was remade in 2011, the song was performed by Deborah Lurie, Victoria Justice and Hunter Hayes.

Carmen produced and sang 'Hungry Eyes', written by Franke Previte and John DeNicola, for the 1987 Patrick Swayze film 'Dirty Dancing' and it peaked at number four on the Hot 100 in 1988. His albums include 'Boats Against the Current' (1977), 'Tonight You're Mine' (1980), 'Winter Dreams' (1997) and 'I Was Born to Love You' (2000). Compilation releases include 'Eric Carmen: The Definitive Collection' (2010) and 'The Essential Eric Carmen' (2014).