LOS ANGELES — Eric Carmen, the frontman of the American pop band Raspberries, has passed away at the age of 74.
Eric became an icon of early 1970s power pop and later achieved solo success with hits like ‘All By Myself’ and ‘Hungry Eyes’.
His wife, Amy Carmen, wrote on his website, “It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” reports ‘Variety’.
It further read, “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. ‘Love Is All That Matters… Faithful and Forever'.”
As per ‘Variety’, the latter quote from Carmen’s wife is a callback to the song ‘Love Is All That Matters’, from his 1977 solo album ‘Boats Against the Current’. However, no cause of death or exact date of death has been shared by the singer’s family.
Eirc, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, was the primary singer and songwriter of the Raspberries, who rebelled against the heavy, glam and progressive-rock scenes of the early 1970s and threw back to the Beatlesesque pop they were raised on.
The group was often lambasted at the time for being too pop or wimpy, but the Raspberries could be a powerhouse rock band when they chose to. Along with kindred spirits Badfinger, Big Star and Todd Rundgren, they created a model that has been revived multiple times over the decades, most vividly in the early 1990s with bands like Teenage Fanclub, the Posies and even Nirvana: Kurt Cobain was a fan, as well as Bruce Springsteen.
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