PMellEagle's Full Review: Definitive Collection by Eric Carmen
For the first time, one CD has covered some of the best of Eric Carmen's career... both as front-man for the Raspberries, and then as a popular solo artist.
With the first five songs being some of his finest work from the early 70's band, the Raspberries; you begin to see that Eric was a man outside of time. The critics at the time labeled them as the "next Beatles" and they were never taken seriously for their own talent until it was too late to save the band. Their two most prominent singles, "Go All The Way" and "I Wanna Be With You" grace this album, along with the incredible "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)", which was voted by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 best singles of the rock era... nearly 20 years after it's release. Time HAS been a friend to Eric... in the sense that his music has proven to be popular with the next generation of music fans. Acts from Bruce Springsteen to Guns 'n Roses have expressed that "the legendary Raspberries" were one of their greatest musical influences.
With a reputation like that, one would think Eric would have had incredible success as a solo act. And in the beginning... he brought us "All By Myself", another piece that was out of time... against the grain of what was happening at the time (1975), but that has captured the imaginations and vocal chords of people from the caliber of a Frank Sinatra to (most recently) Celine Dion. Her re-make once again proves that Eric was indeed ahead of his time. That first album generated 5 of the songs on this collection, including "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", and the original version of the Shaun Cassidy hit, "That's Rock & Roll".
However, it was not to be smooth sailing for Eric. His second album, "Boats Against the Current" ran aground and sank on it's way up the charts. It yielded only one "hit", the Beach Boys-sounding "She Did It." The true gem, however, was not embraced by the public (at that time...) the title track; quite possibly the most incredible song Eric has ever written or sung. To have a chance to hear "Boats Against the Current" on CD is worth buying this CD if nothing else was on it! TO THIS DAY this song has "smash hit" written all over it, if only SOMEBODY (or maybe Eric himself) would re-record it! As a bonus, this CD has the harder to find, obscure "back-ground vocals" edition of "Boats."
But you do get more... including "Hungry Eyes", Eric's smash hit from the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack, and the follow up (and to date, Eric's last major hit), "Make Me Lose Control", and many of the "b" sides of his singles. Surprisingly there are five songs from his first solo release while some of his other releases are virtually ignored. Still, for quality and compilation, this is as good as it gets to date!
If you're a fan, you'll love this collection. There are a few songs I'd have loved to have included, so I'm not sure it's "Definitive". It's definitely the best collection I've seen on one CD.
If you're not a fan yet... you will be. It's hard to not like quality and passion when it's presented in this form!
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.