I somehow missed the news that Eric Carmen died last month. So I’m sharing his song that I have adored ever since it first came out. Happy that Celine Dion’s cover took the song to #11 and made him a bunch of money but as much as I love Celine, her version suffers from the David Foster disease of too much bombast.2 Carmen’s version is low-key yet emotional and it’s a combination I find very hard to resist.
For the construction of the song, the verse is based on the second movement Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The chorus was taken from the 1972 song Let's Pretend, which Carmen wrote and recorded with the Raspberries. This was a rare situation where the concerto was out of copyright in the US but not in other countries (usually it’s the other way around) so a negotiation happened and the Rachmaninoff estate gets 12% of the royalties.
There’s been some other covers besides Dion’s. Carmen said he was fascinated by Eartha Kitt’s version “because it's just so odd in a cool way”.
He also really liked Henry Mancini’s version.
Enjoy your song of the day. I haven’t sung it in public yet but it is on my list - I have the backing track. RIP Eric Carmen. Thank you for the music.
Carmen’s version did chart high too but Dion took it to the stratosphere.
Foster was quite the bastard. He didn’t tell her about the high note heading into the key change for the final verse and then told her if she didn’t sing it, he’d find another singer who would. Ass. My hatred of Foster knows no bounds.
Hard to think anyone could ever best the original, such an amazing song!
Love the original, sounds so heartfelt. Also really interesting to learn of Rachmaninoff and 12% royalties!