Raspberries: Their self-titled debut produced the million-seller "Go All The Way"
Written: Aug 24 '04 (Updated Oct 18 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: A pair of Hot 100 singles:"Go All The Way" and "Don't Want To Say Goodbye."
Cons: Not their best effort.
The Bottom Line: Great album featuring Eric Carmen. A better purchase is RPM Records' "Power Pop, Volume One," which contains the albums "Raspberries" and "Fresh" on a single CD.
Don_Krider's Full Review: Raspberries [Slipcase] by The Raspberries
Raspberries created a stir in Cleveland when they formed in 1970. No one is positive how they got their name, but Eric Carmen believes they decided to call themselves "Raspberries" after months of frustration in trying to themselves Eric threw up his hands like one of filmdom's "Little Rascals" and said, "Aw, Raspberries," with the other band members jumping on the name and saying "That's it --- Raspberries!"
Within a year of forming, Eric Carmen (rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals), Wally Bryson (lead guitar, vocals), John Aleksic (bass guitar, vocals) and Jim Bonfanti (drums, vocals) were drawing crowds of more than 1,000 people to local clubs and attracting record label interest.
Aleksic, who didn't seem to fit in, was replaced in 1971 by Dave Smalley, who took over rhythm guitar duties while Carmen switched to bass guitar (Smalley and Carmen played those instruments on the first Raspberries' album, but switched instruments by the Raspberries second album). Smalley was fresh from Vietnam, where he had been wounded as an Army helicopter gunner (he had previously sang lead for The Choir, a band that had also featured Bryson and Bonfanti).
Record executives came to see the band play, a bidding war followed, and Raspberries were signed to Capitol Records with great fanfare in 1971. In early 1972, produced by Jimmy Ienner (producer of Lighthouse, Grand Funk and Three Dog Night, Ienner's bass vocals can be heard on Gene Chandler's hit "Duke Of Earl"), Raspberries burst onto the national music scene.
Handsome guys in matching suits, wearing shorter-than-normal hair and playing three-minute power pop masterpieces, Raspberries were soon making pop history.
An interesting detail in a new book by Bernie Hogya and Ken Sharp, "Eric Carmen: Marathon Man" (available from http://www.ericcarmen.com and reviewed at http://www.epinions.com/content_153762500228), reveals that the first self-titled Raspberries album was recorded "twice." Apparently the first recording of the album was "sterile," Carmen tells the book's authors, because the band was trying too hard to make an album as good as anything by The Beatles.
When they re-recorded the album and finally released it, "Raspberries" garnered good reviews, including one by Mike Saunders in Rolling Stone magazine who said, "What makes this album easy to recommend is the fact that there really isn't a bad cut on it."
One early fan, quoted at length in the new book biography mentioned above, was singer Rick Springfield, said, "I loved Eric's voice. I always thought his voice was fabulous."
Raspberries went on to record seven Billboard magazine Hot 100 hits between 1972 and 1974, two of which, "Go All The Way" and "Don't Want To Say Goodbye," appear on the "Raspberries" album. Carmen went solo in 1975, scoring with such hits as "All By Myself" and "Hungry Eyes."
The album:
Released in April of 1972, "Raspberries" featured a Capitol Records' gimmick designed to promote the album: a scratch-and-sniff band logo sticker that was applied to early copies of the album (without the sticker, as later printings were, the cover has a picture of the band against a bright blue sky background and nothing to tell people it's a "Raspberries" album).
The gimmick sort of worked, but not necessarily as Capitol had hoped. The stickers often made the shipping boxes the albums went to stores in smell horribly when opened and one lady in Canada reportedly passed out when she scratched the sticker to smell the Raspberry scent at a record store. Still, any publicity is good publicity, some say.
Capitol's promotion people then sent copies of the first single, the Eric Carmen-Wally Bryson duet of "Don't Want To Say Goodbye" to stations with a label that didn't identify the band on the record, but asked deejays to guess who it was --- apparently many deejays thought the band was The Bee Gees.
Despite the gimmicks that all new bands suffer through, Raspberries managed to score. On May 13, 1972, the single "Don't Want To Say Goodbye" became their first chart hit, peaking at # 86 during a two-week chart run.
On May 20, 1972, Billboard began tracking the success of Raspberries first album. To keep that initial success going, Capitol rushed a second single, the rocking "Go All The Way," to stores.
"Raspberries," the album, rose to # 51 on the U. S. Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, spending 30 weeks on the chart.
"Go All The Way" nearly did "go all the way" to the top of the charts --- peaking at # 5 during its 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. By November of 1972, "Go All The Way" had sold 1.3 million copies in the U. S. (receiving a Gold Record Award ). In Australia, the tune reached # 14.
In recent years, "Go All The Way" was named as one of Spin magazine's 100 Best Singles Of The Rock Era while the album "Raspberries" was named one of the "Top 15 Albums Of Power Pop" by Magnet magazine.
The LP has long been out of print. There has yet to be a U. S. release of the album on CD (though reports of a Raspberries' reunion in Cleveland later in 2004 may rekindle interest). In Japan, the album has been released twice on CD, but it's an expensive import if you can find it.
"Go All The Way" opens the album (intially credited to Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson in a "mistake" by Capitol Records), the Carmen-penned tune features Bryson's firey power chorded guitar intro before diving into one of the finest pop lead vocals of the 1970's, as Carmen sings:
"...before her love I was cruel and mean / I had a hole in the place where my heart should have been / but now I've changed / and it feels so strange / I come alive when she says, 'come on' (come on) / ... / please, go all the way..."
"I Can Remember" offers an eight-minute piano-based melody. Eric wrote the very complicated song two weeks before the band recorded it --- finishing the lyrics the night before the recording sessions.
What is so cool about the tune is that the band could pull it off on stage when I saw them do it at a concert in 1973 (with sidemen on mellotrons adding the album's intricate strings to the live performance).
It starts off as a gorgeous piano ballad, just Eric's beautifully sweet voice and a grand piano, then follows with a piano solo, and progresses into an uptempo rocker full of chord changes and the band's trademark, multi-part harmonies, all propelled by Jim Bonfanti's maniac drumming. It's simply the "coolest thing" and I never tire of the performance, including turning a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar into a piano midway through the tune (when you hear it, you'll understand, but the song has so many things going on that you really have to listen close to hear all that Raspberries' did here.
Carmen, in the Hogya-Sharp book bio, says he wanted the tune to be a ballad that becomes a Who-styled rocker midway through, which is typical of Carmen's songwriting style: just when the audience thinks they know what's coming, slap them in the face with a new musical direction. His lyrics are to die for, too, as he tells of a lost love.
Carmen sings (as the band croons throughout, "autumn leaves, summer breeze, memories" in the background):
"...in the spring the sun will shine / and make the ice surrender / but it will not warm my heart / as long as I remember / oh I, I can remember mid-summer skies / love in your eyes / .... / oh I, I can remember the tears I've cried / since you said 'goodbye'..."
Carmen and Bryson wrote "Don't Want To Say Goodbye," which really does sound like The Bee Gees.
"Don't Want To Say Goodbye" began life as a Bryson song with a different melody. Bryson had written the lyrics, but the melody didn't fit. In a trade-off not unlike John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Wally called Eric on the phone, read him the lyrics and Eric wrote a melody that fit the lyrics --- Eric then sang the new melody, with Wally's lyrics, back to Wally over the phone!
The tune, which is a lovely piano ballad with some great lead guitar work at the end, peaked at # 86 on the charts in 1972.
"Come Around And See Me" (by Wally Bryson) is the final version of the demo that producer Jimmy Ienner said got him to sign Raspberries --- it's latin music-accented pop with lovely acoustic guitar, and a band loose enough in its self-impressed mod guitar band status that "the guys" toss around lines like "que pasa, baby" just for fun at the song's end.
Bryson reminds me of George Harrison (the spirit is like "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" in its fun feel) as he sings:
"...don't ever think I'll be cruel to you / I'm a fool for you / come around and see me / if you want me to wait forever / I will / and though you say you may love me never / you will / you know I've never lied / you'll never be denied, my love / you'll end up by my side / come around and see me..."
Pretty sweet thoughts from the normally hard rocking Wally Bryson, who is part Cherokee Indian, by the way.
Bryson is a bit more cocky in the lyrics to "With You In My LIfe," again sounding a bit like a Beatles' recording (listen to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and tell me I'm wrong).
With horns and ragtime piano, Bryson sings (seriously, this would be a perfect song for Ringo Starr to sing):
"...I'll give you happiness; a little boy, a little girl / another boy, another girl, and love / with you in my life, all I want to do is love / with you in my life, you are all I'm thinking of / I hope you know I've never felt this way / and as long as you're true to me, in my life you'll stay..."
When I saw Raspberries live in 1973, someone in the audience yelled that they wanted to "boogie," so Eric Carmen had Dave Smalley take center stage for one of his tunes. Dave's early material fit the "boogie" bill, with "Get It Moving" and "Rock & Roll Mama" on this album are evidence of that (Dave's songwriting on the next two LPs improved greatly).
"Waiting" is a pretty ballad, though not a favorite of mine, by Eric Carmen. "I Saw The Light" by Bryson and Carmen is much sweeter, but an early demo (briefly released on the year 2000 version of "Greatest Hits" by BMG Music Service, though a legal battle between the band and the record label meant the album was never officially released and was soon pulled) is much better (very, very Beatle-ish as a demo).
Just released:
Live On Sunset Strip (Deluxe Edition of 2 CDs and a DVD recorded during the 2005 reunion tour) By Raspberries, a 2007 Rykodisc release with liner notes byBruce Springsteen and a photo of John Lennon in a Raspberries sweatshirt in the CD booklet, produced by Mark Linett and Eric Carmen: http://www.epinions.com/content_393207123588
On the web:
The official Raspberries' website: http://www.raspberries.net
The official Eric Carmen website: http://www.ericcarmen.com
The official Wally Bryson website: http://www.thebrysongroup.com/
The official Dave Smalley website: http://www.davesmalley.com/
The official Jim Bonfanti website (featuring his Cleveland band, Boxer): http://www.boxerrocks.com
Reviews of interest:
"Reflections: Side 3 - Songs From The Raspberries Fan Community" by various artists is a tribute album that benefits the VH-1 Save The Music Foundation: http://www.epinions.com/content_271718911620
Capitol/EMI's 24-bit digitally remastered CD released in May of 2005 in the U. S. and Europe, "Greatest," features all 7 of Raspberries Hot 100 singles, has 20 tracks and runs 78:53 minutes: http://www.epinions.com/content_186044681860
On tour to rave reviews as a sideman on Raspberries' 2004-2005 tour is guitarist Billy Sullivan (personally chosen by Eric Carmen for the tour). My review of Billy's solo album, "All-American Popster," appears at: http://www.epinions.com/content_170531917444
My review of The Choir's "Choir Practice" (the 1960's mod power pop band gave members to The Raspberries and The James Gang, but don't confuse them with the Christian recording group of the same name; this is the band that hit the Hot 100 in 1967 with "It's Cold Outside"): http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-49D-59376F6-385D8FD9-prod3
To Epinions.Com Music Category Lead Shelly, aka Lambchops (http://www.epinions.com/user-lambchops), for adding Raspberries' "Raspberries" to the Epinions.Com musical database.
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