ERIC CARMEN - HUNGRY EYES

HUNGRY EYES

ERIC CARMEN

SONGWRITER: JOHN DENICOLA & DEAN PITCHFORD

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: DEFINITIVE COLLECTION

LABEL: ARTISTA RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1997

The Definitive Collection is a 1997 greatest hits album of all the singles released by Cleveland, Ohio singer-songwriter Eric Carmen. It features five hits by the Raspberries, a power pop group which he led in the early 1970s. It also contains his versions of two major hits which he wrote for Shaun Cassidy, two popular songs from the movie Dirty Dancing, and his greatest hit, "All By Myself", which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 5, 1976.

Eric Howard Carmen(born August 11, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist. He scored numerous hit songs across the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Raspberries(who had a million-selling single with "Go All the Way"), and then with his solo career, including hits such as "All by Myself", "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", "She Did It", "Hungry Eyes", and "Make Me Lose Control".

His first two solo singles were chart hits in 1976. Both were built around themes by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The first of these singles, "All by Myself" – based on Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 – hit number 2 in the United States, and number 12 in the United Kingdom where it was his only charting hit. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in April 1976. The follow-up single, "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" – based on the main theme of the slow movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 – reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and hit number one on the US Adult Contemporary Chart, as well as number nine on the Cash Box chart. In the UK Dana took it to number 31. Those songs featured on his 1975 self-titled debut album, along with "That's Rock and Roll", a number 3 hit single for singer Shaun Cassidy. The album made number 21 on the Billboard album chart and was certified Gold in 1977 for sales of more than 500,000 copies.

Carmen's second album, Boats Against the Current, came out in the summer of 1977 and received mixed reviews. It featured backup players such as Burton Cummings, Andrew Gold, Bruce Johnston and Nigel Olsson. The album spent 13 weeks in the Billboard Album chart, peaking number 45. It also produced the Top 20 single "She Did It," but the title track only managed to scrape the bottom of the chart. The title track was later covered by Olivia Newton-John on her album Totally Hot. A third single taken from the album, "Marathon Man," became his first solo single not to hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart. However, Shaun Cassidy again made the Top 10 in 1978 with Carmen's "Hey Deanie." For several weeks in the fall of 1977, Carmen had three compositions charting concurrently on the Billboard Hot 100, Cassidy's two big hits and Carmen's own "She Did It".

Carmen followed up with two more albums. Despite declining chart fortunes, the single "Change of Heart" broke into the Pop Top 20 and reached number 6 at AC in late 1978, with this hit also being covered by Samantha Sang on her Emotion LP. But in 1980, after the release of the album "Tonight You're Mine" and single "It Hurts Too Much" (number 75 Billboard Top 100; number 3 South Africa, June 1980) he temporarily withdrew from the music industry.

Four years later, after Mike Reno and Ann Wilson topped the charts (Pop number 7; Adult Contemporary number one) with the Carmen-penned ballad "Almost Paradise" (the love them to the film Footloose), Eric resurfaced on Geffen Records in 1985 with a second self-titled album and a sizeable comeback hit "I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips". The single hit the Adult Contemporary Top 10 as well as the Pop Top 40. The follow-up single, "I'm Through with Love," also climbed the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary chart. Another track from the album, "Maybe My Baby," later became a Country hit for Louise Mandrell. "I Wanna Hear It from Your Lips" was also a Country hit for Louise Mandrell.

In 1987, Carmen's contribution to the hit movie Dirty Dancing, "Hungry Eyes", hit number 2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and also returned him to the Pop Top 10. "Reason To Try", a further contribution to the One Moment in Time compilation album of songs recorded for the Seoul Summer Olympics, kept Carmen's profile high in 1988, during which the nostalgic "Make Me Lose Control" also returned him to the number one position on the Adult Contemporary chart – where it stayed for three straight weeks – as well as number 3 on Billboard's Hot 100. This became his highest charting song since "All By Myself". Both, along with "Hungry Eyes", having in the past two decades become classic pop radio favorites. Although Carmen did not follow his two hit singles with a new studio album in 1988, "Make Me Lose Control" was included on a revised 'Best Of' collection from Arista. (The original version of the album was released a few months before the single was released, and early pressings exclude the song.)

The year 2000 saw the stateside release of I Was Born to Love You, which had been released in 1998 only in Japan as Winter Dreams. Carmen eschewed the use of a band on the recording, playing most of the instruments and programming the drum parts himself. The album did not find a large audience, but Carmen has continued to enjoy success placing songs with other artists over the years. In 2000 he also toured for the first time in years with Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band performing "Hungry Eyes", "Go All The Way" and "All By Myself".

On December 24, 2013, the first new recording in over 15 years by Carmen titled "Brand New Year" was released. The track, written and recorded in November/December 2013 in Ohio and Los Angeles, was issued via a gratis download by Legacy Recordings as a special "Christmas gift", to herald the March 2014 arrival of a 30 track career retrospective entitled The Essential Eric Carmen.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Eric Carmen among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

I've been meaning to tell you

I've got this feelin' that won't subside

I look at you and I fantasize

You're mine tonight

Now I've got you in my sights

[CHORUS:]

With these hungry eyes

One look at you and I can't disguise

I've got hungry eyes

I feel the magic between you and I

I wanna hold you so hear me out

I wanna show you what love's all about

Darlin' tonight

Now I've got you in my sights

[CHORUS]

Now I've got you in my sights

With these hungry eyes

Now did I take you by surprise

I need you to see

This love was meant to be

[CHORUS]

Now I've got you in my sights

With these hungry eyes

Now did i take you by surprise

I need you to see

This love was meant to be.

I got Hungry Eyes.