Raspberries frontman and “All By Myself” singer dies at 74

Eric Carmen, whose plaintive vocals soared above the crunching guitars of the 1970s powerpop pioneers the Raspberries on hits like “Go All the Way,” and whose soft-rock crooning as a solo artist propelled 1980s anthems like “All by Myself,” has died. He was 74.

His death was announced on his website by his wife, Amy Carmen. She did not give a cause or specify where he died, saying only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend.”

The Raspberries formed in Cleveland in 1970. With the preternaturally melodic Carmen churning out hits and serving as frontman, the band represented a throwback of sorts, in terms of both sound and image.

Emerging at a time when FM radio playlists tilted toward the thundering blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple; the orchestral pomp of progressive rock bands like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and the glittery glam rock of T. Rex and David Bowie, the Raspberries recalled the intricate songcraft and lush melodies of the mid-’60s pop masters.

“I had spent my youth with my head between two stereo speakers listening to the Byrds and the Beatles and later on the Beach Boys,” Carmen said in a 1991 interview published on his personal website.

Even more retro was the band’s look: Members initially wore matching suits — a concept that had seemingly gone out of fashion with Herman’s Hermits, although in their case the suits looked more like harbingers of John Travolta’s discowear from “Saturday Night Fever.”

To Carmen, the relatively square look was a cheeky way to stand out in the landscape of 1970s rock. “Almost every band had hair down to their waist and beards and ripped jeans, and they looked like a bunch of hippies, and I wanted to get as far away from that as I could,” he said in a 2017 interview with The Observer.

It all worked. The band burst onto the rock scene in 1972 with its debut album, titled simply “The Raspberries,” which included a raspberry-scented scratchand-sniff sticker, a hint of the sugary pop hooks contained within.

The album’s biggest hit, “Go All the Way,” contained lyrics about an implicitly young couple moving haltingly toward intercourse, which Carmen considered riskily suggestive for the pop charts of the time. “Either it’ll get banned because it’s dirty, then maybe people will buy the album to check it out,” he recalled thinking, “or if it ever gets on the radio, I think it’ll just be a hit based on the title alone.”