'Hungry Eyes' Singer Eric Carmen Dead at 74

Singer Eric Carmen has died at age 74, wife Amy announced on his website. No cause of death was given, with the statement saying only that "Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep, over the weekend." Carmen's career had two main stages—he first achieved fame out of Cleveland in the 1970s with the Raspberries, then later in a solo career, scoring big hits in both. A few big ones:

• "All by Myself" (solo).
• Hungry Eyes" (solo, featured in Dirty Dancing.)
• "Go All the Way" (with the Raspberries and sung from the point of view of the woman, notes CNN). The New York Times notes that one critic anointed this song the "definitive power pop song of all time."
• "Make Me Lose Control" (solo).
• "I Wanna Be With You" (with the Raspberries).
• As a songwriter, he also wrote "Almost Paradise," the theme of Footloose.

The Raspberries broke up in 1975. "Critics liked us, girls liked us, but their 18-year-old, album-buying brothers said 'no,'" Carmen wrote on his website bio. "We got frustrated and imploded." He also spoke to the Observer several years ago about the formation of that band: "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 recalled. The Times counts John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen as among the group's fans. (More obituary stories.)