Eric Carmen was the frontman for the Raspberries. The singer wrote music that helped set the temper for a number of fashionable films all through his profession, together with Dirty Dancing.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

cover caption

toggle caption

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Eric Carmen was the frontman for the Raspberries. The singer wrote music that helped set the temper for a number of fashionable films all through his profession, together with Dirty Dancing.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Eric Carmen wrote and carried out among the greatest energy ballads of the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s. Many of them turned well-known from the flicks they helped rating. Carmen wrote eight high 40 hits; his best-known songs embrace “Hungry Eyes,” an integral a part of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack from 1987, and “All By Myself,” which has turn out to be a romantic comedy staple.

Carmen died in his sleep this weekend, in accordance with a press release on his webpage.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” wrote his spouse, Amy Carmen. “It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy.”

No particulars of Carmen’s dying got. He was 74 years previous.

Carmen’s mom was knowledgeable violist who performed with the Cleveland Orchestra. He discovered songwriting inspiration in classical music. (“All By Myself” is predicated partially on Sergei Rachmaninoff‘s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.) In 1970, Carmen began a Cleveland band referred to as the Raspberries that made up in affect what it lacked in fame; followers included John Lennon, Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen, as Carmen instructed The Observer in a 2017 interview.

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr poses with members of the sixth incarnation of the All-Starr Band who’re Jack Bruce, left, Eric Carmen, Ringo Starr, Dave Edmunds, Mark Rivera and Simon Kirke throughout a press convention in May 2000.

Matt Campbell/Getty Images

cover caption

toggle caption

Matt Campbell/Getty Images

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr poses with members of the sixth incarnation of the All-Starr Band who’re Jack Bruce, left, Eric Carmen, Ringo Starr, Dave Edmunds, Mark Rivera and Simon Kirke throughout a press convention in May 2000.

Matt Campbell/Getty Images

“The first time I met Bruce Springsteen, I walked in his dressing room before a show, and he was writing out the setlist, and we both looked at each other for a couple of minutes — I was very uncomfortable being on the fan end, so I felt a little stupid,” Carmen remembered to reporter Ken Kurson. “But Bruce looked at me, and he goes, ‘You know, while I was writing “The River” all I listened to was Woody Guthrie and the Raspberries’ greatest hits.'”

The Raspberries broke up in 1975, and Carmen went solo. His music appeared in films starting from Bridget Jones’s Diary to Almost Famous — director Cameron Crowe was a fan of the Raspberries, too — to Footloose. Carmen co-wrote its love theme, “Almost Paradise,” carried out by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson.

A constellation of stars, together with John Travolta, Shirley Bassey and Celine Dion, have recorded Eric Carmen’s music over time. The Raspberries reunited in 2004 and toured for the following three years. Carmen additionally toured with Ringo Starr within the sixth iteration of his All-Starr Band.