Eric Carmen (1975 album)

Eric Carmen is the debut album by American rock musician and singer-songwriter Eric Carmen. It is also his first of two self-titled albums, the other released in 1984. It peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard album chart upon its release in 1975, the highest position of his career, and generated the No. 2 pop single "All by Myself" in the same year. The song reached No. 1 on the Cashbox and Record World charts. The album also included two follow-up top 40 hits, "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" (#11), and "Sunrise" (#34), both of which charted in 1976.

All tracks were written by Carmen except the Drifters' song "On Broadway", which was written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. This LP also contained Carmen's original version of "That's Rock and Roll", which became a No. 3 hit for Shaun Cassidy in 1977.

The album was Carmen's first solo production after leaving the Raspberries, a power pop group which scored several top 40 hits in the early 1970s.

Songs
Eric Carmen wrote all of the songs on the album except for "On Broadway" (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber). Several of his songs interpolate classical melodies:
 * "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" is borrowed from Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 in E minor.
 * "All By Myself" has elements from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.
 * "My Girl" exploits a theme from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.
 * "Last Night" quotes Etude Op. 10 No. 3 by Frédéric Chopin.

Cash Box said of the opening track and third single "Sunrise" that "There's a beautiful introduction, with horns and everything, and then the music breaks into some serious rock ’n’ roll. Carmen's voice is in top form, and he makes the melody soar." Billboard said of it that Carmen's "wonderfully unmistakable sad tenor voice attacks an uptempo lyric message this time and produces the effect of a breaking heart desperately winning through to an optimistic outlook. The melody and production are a sleek counterpoint to Carmen's emotional singing." "Sunrise" peaked at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Personnel

 * Eric Carmen - piano, lead vocals, guitar
 * Dan Hrdlicka - lead guitar, backing vocals
 * Steve Knill - bass, backing vocals
 * Richard Reising - synthesizer, organ, backing vocals
 * Dwight Krueger, Michael McBride - drums, percussion, backing vocals
 * Jackie Kelso - flute solo on "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again"
 * Hugh McCracken - slide guitar solo on "All By Myself"
 * Technical
 * Jack Sherdel - engineer
 * Robert L. Heimall - art direction, design
 * Norman Seeff - photography