Eric Carmen

The mp3 format basically sucks. There's too much bandwidth for iPhones etc to handle, so the files are compressed (read: squashed) into much smaller files, much like Raspberries early recordings. You lose all the crystal high frequencies and the warm low frequencies, and it sucks the air out of the recording. The CD is definitely the way to go. When I send files to friends and co-workers, I use a service called We Transfer that allows you to send very large files through email. There are a number of services that do this. It's really the only way to send something, so it doesn't lose all the quality. If you downloaded "Brand New Year" from the SoundCloud, you got the full, high resolution version. If you go to SoundCloud and listen to BNY now, you hear the mp3 version. There's a world of difference.

Hi Bernie, I know it's tomorrow, but I thought I'd post this a little early! Have a wonderful day, and, as usual, thanks for everything! You are the BEST!!! Big hug, e

Not for the faint of heart. I've got to admit, the first time I heard this I laughed until tears ran down my face. e

FYI, almost every time I have seen a mention of "All By Myself" in print, over the past five or ten years, it has been referred to as " Eric Carmen's "All By Myself.'" Not Celine Dion's or anyone else's. And BTW, the royalty checks still come here. People who were of a certain age became familiar with the song in 1992 when Celine re-recorded it ( and sold 32,000,000 albums ). People who were of a certain age in 1976 were familiar with the original version. If you live in South America, you might be more familiar with Luis Miguel's "Perdoname." In other parts of the world, there have been many translations ( some good, some bad ) that have attempted to reconcile the language of that country with the melody of ABM. So far, the song has been played over 3.5 million times on domestic ( just in the USA ) radio. It's been played at least that many times in Europe and Asia. That's a good 7,000,000 plus plays, worldwide, since 1976, and counting. The last time I checked BMI's catalogue, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers, was the most performed song in their catalogue, followed by "Yesterday" by The Beatles. I think they were both somewhere in excess of 12,000,000 plays. ABM has been recorded by artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Sheryl Crow, Babes In Toyland ( one of the funniest versions I have ever heard ) Henry Mancini, Eartha Kitt, Tom Jones, Il Divo, Celine Dion and literally hundreds more, all over the world, so, in the immortal weirds of Eva Perrone, "Don't cry for me, Argentina...." e

Sorry, "Foolin' Myself" didn't make the cut. That said, there were lots of good songs that didn't make the cut. We only had 30 available slots to fill, and Tim and I were determined to create a balance between the rockers and the ballads. One of Tim's main goals, from the very beginning, was to show everyone I "didn't stop rockin' when I signed with Arista." e

The final track list for "The Essential..." should be announced soon. It will be in an official press release from Legacy. It's very cool. e

It's there.

.......And, there have now been 10,000 independent streams of "BNY" registered at the Legacy Soundcloud in exactly 72 hours, since the link was opened! Cool!

Hey, Bernie I took the liberty of editing the only two words that weren't right. Everything else was perfect! Thanks for posting the lyric. I'd like to point out a couple little "fun" things in "Brand New Year" that listers may have missed, because they're pretty subtle. If you listen closely, after the line "Drink a toast to....", you can hear two glasses "clink" together. And , a little more obvious....after the line "Stroke of midnight....", I found a church chime to include. "Bong!" I love tiny, little, almost subliminal things like that. e

The "world weary" vocal delivery, during the verse, was on purpose. I'm not 22 anymore, and, for the same reason I love Johnny Cash's reading of Trent Reznor's "Hurt", I wanted my vocal in the verses to sound like someone who had "lived." I only did four vocal performances, back to back, on "Brand New Year." As I've said before, "believability" is the most important element of any vocal performance, to me. I've never used "auto-tune", or any of the other new, technological tricks, because I think every single one of them sucks the "humanity" out of a performance. And, to me, the only thing that "makes" a performance, is the listener's ability to feel what I feel, when I sing it. That's why the second line of the first verse, "Sometimes it felt like we might not make it," is hoarse, and raw and imperfect. It had to be that way to be "believable." Singing isn't about making a pretty sound, or hitting every note. It's about convincing the listener, you meant it. My favorite word, of my whole vocal performance on "Brand New Year" is the word "cold" in the second verse. "The world can be so COLD...." Somehow, the way I sang that word sounds as if I was shivering from the cold, when I sang it. That's why it's there. I wanted the verses to be "raw." I wanted you to feel the pain I felt. The soaring falsetto of the chorus's and the bridge, is because those two parts of the song are where the lyric turns "positive." The verse was never supposed to feel "positive." It has a sense of "foreboding," of having experienced the world....of having suffered. That's the whole point of the song. We all suffer losses, and injustices, and the pain that comes from experiencing life, but we can't, and don't give up. We hope for a better tomorrow. We somehow get through what life throws at us, and we go on, in spite of it. That is what "Brand New Year' is about. When I wrote this song, I was thinking about two people, specifically, that I know, that had both experienced the most horrific year I could ever imagine. They are two of the nicest people i have ever known, and yet, somehow, life dealt them both a terrible, terrible hand, last year. And then I began to consider the pain of my own four-and-a half year divorce, and how it has affected my children, and then I began to think about the countless millions of people in the world that had had a year at least that bad, or worse. When I write, my goal, as a songwriter, is to try to find what I call "The Universal." Something that resonates inside every human being. Something EVERYONE has felt. And that is what makes a song great. When you can capture, in music and lyrics, something everyone has felt, at some point in their life. That is why "All By Myself" is known in every, tiny corner of the world, and has been played seven or eight million times, worldwide, so far. Because everyone understands that emotion, everywhere. Not just in 1975, but in 1985, and 1995, and 2005, and, I suspect, in 2015, and beyond. As a songwriter, sometimes, you just get lucky. The night I wrote the verses and the chorus of "Brand New Year," there was a snowstorm that caused a power outage on my street, that shut off every outside distraction. No heat, no phone, no internet, not even the faint hum of electricity I can normally hear. My living room was a complete vacuum, with nothing but a roaring fire in the fireplace, casting a beautiful glow across the room. I sat there, reading a book, by flashlight, and, at some point, I glanced across the room at the piano, and I walked across the room and sat down, and put my fingers on the keys. I hadn't done that for a long, long time, but, that night, the music just spilled out of my head. I wrote the verse, "b" section, and the chorus in less than an hour, and the bridge a couple of days later. The lyric and title came a few days after that, and I wrote the lyric for the bridge the day I recorded the demo. It's one of the most "organic" songs I've ever written. Just like "Boats Against The Current."They both just kind of wrote themselves. I love when that happens! Anyway, it's late, and I've divulged far more than I probably should have about the "process" of songwriting, but if I ever discussed it with anyone, it should be you, the ones that "got me", from the beginning. Merry Christmas, and warmest wishes for a safe, healthy and happy "Brand New Year." xoxoxo e

Check out the "News" section at the top of the "Forum page! xoxo e

Hello, ec.com members! At 3:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time ( High noon Pacific ) Legacy Records, ERICCARMEN.COM, and I, would like to start off Christmas with a special present. Use this link https://soundcloud.com/legacyrecordings/eric-carmen-brand-new-year/s-bUov9 to go to Legacy's website, and you will be able to download ​"Brand New Year," ( the WHOLE record ) free! That's only about fifteen minutes from right now!!!! Have a wonderful Holiday, wishing you all a happy "Brand New Year"! xoxoxo Eric

...Teaser for the new song and album. xoxo e

The verses were Bruce and me. The bridge was all mine ( as usual ). e

xoxoxo e

Hi Duane, Fear not. There are going to be THIRTY TRACKS on "The Essential," and there are plenty of ballads. ( How could we do a record like this and NOT include "All By Myself" (the LONG version), "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again", "Run Away," "Nowhere To Hide", "Love is All That Matters", "Desperate Fools" and "The Way We Used To Be," etc ?) And, BTW, the "new" song is really cool. I'll be heading out to L.A. on December 7 to record it with all my buddies from Brian Wilson's band.

Carl Wilson sang ' God Only Knows." Paul has said he thinks it's "the best pop song every written." I would give my vote to "Somewhere" from "West Side Story" for that honor, but "God Only Knows" would be in my top ten. The and was incredible last Sunday. Jeff Foskett is, without a doubt, the best falsetto in music, today. Darian Sahanaja sang "Darlin;" and sounded more like Carl Wilson than Carl did. Mike D'Amico, the drummer of the Wondermints was spectacular, as was Nicky Wonder on guitar. Overall, I'd have to say they're my "dream band," and the nicest guys in the universe, as well as being brilliant musicians, and singers. They opened the show with "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring." It was perfect. I rest my case. Joe Vitale ( Barnstorm w/ Joe Walsh, Crosby Stills and Nash's drummer) was sitting right behind me at the show. About five songs in, I turned to him and said "How spot on is Mike d'Amico?" His response, "Fucking incredible." e

"Sure could use it." e

2.2 million plays, domestically, and counting. e

I worked out the royalty rate. It's .00004 cent(s) per play. e

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the president of the Cleveland Institute Of Music, Joel Smirnoff. He is the leader of The Julliard String Quartet, a genius violinist, a conductor (Tanglewood as well as many international symphonies) a Sony recording artist, and has even played jazz violin solos on Tony Bennett's albums. We had dinner together, and then went to Severance Hall, my old stomping ground, where the CIM Orchestra was performing an "All Russian" program, including Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony. The "Adagio" movement of that symphony is where the chorus of "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" came from. Depending on which recording you listen to ( I favor Andre Previn and The Royal Philharmonic, because Andre conducts the piece much slower than most other versions, and that lets you hear all the inner movement of the strings, playing seconds against each other, which, to me is the most evocative 40 seconds in the third movement, and the theme that made the Second Symphony famous ). On the Andre Previn version, it begins at about 3:43 which is the build- up before Rach reveals the "main theme." It is one of the most exquisite 40 or so seconds in all of music, to me. The first time I heard Frank Sinatra sing NGFILA in straight 4/4 time, I realized I had missed a bet. I made it into the shuffle that became the recording in 1975, and I missed simply using Rachs gorgeous arrangement in straight 4/4 time as the backdrop. Duh. I'm thinking about re-recording NGFILA in straight 4/4 time, and i think I can probably get CIM's orchestra to play it for me, thanks to me new friend, Joel Smirnoff. Joel was trained at Julliard, and, at dinner, I talked to him about dropping out of college because what I needed to learn was not taught in any college. The art of contemporary songwriting. Joel told me that, when he was at Julliard, Richard Rogers' daughter ( That would be Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein ) was the head of the school, and he was disappointed that Julliard didn't really get behind her, and tap her potential as a songwriter and author(ess) of a hit Broadway play. He said that no major American music school ( Julliard, CIM, Eastman etc. ) has ever offered a course in contemporary songwriting. I was kind of shocked. Joel seated me next to Barbara Robinson, one of Cleveland's greatest benefactors and supporters of the arts. She is a charming and wonderful lady, most likely in her 80's, and we shared the same theory and harmony teacher at CIM many years ago. She also knew my Aunt Muriel, from the Cleveland Symphony, and my piano instructor. After the performance, I told Joel that I had been thinking about his comment that none of the great music schools offered a course in popular songwriting, and that that sounded like something that could be a lot of fun to me. His reply was " If you're interested, I think I know where I can get the funding." Apparently, seating me next to Barbara Robinson, was not exactly and accident. I kind of like the idea of "Professor Carmen." e

One of the funniest things I have seen , in recent days, is Raspberries albums stamped with the "Explicit" parental rating. What a riot! e

Hi kids, Last week, I received my BMI statement. It covers a six month period, and I get a statement twice each year. For those who may not know, BMI stands for Broadcast Music Inc. Their sole job is to keep track of how many times a song is played, both domestically, and around the world, and to pay the writer and publisher, based on airplay. When I looked at the number of "plays" "Go All The Way" received during the last six month period, I thought it was some sort of aberration. My statement said it was played 26,000 times during that period. By contrast, "All By Myself" was played around 6,500 times. It seemed odd to me, so I called my friend Barbara Cane at BMI in L.A. to ask her if they got their numbers mixed up. She pulled up the numbers on her computer, and said "The number is correct." Still thinking it was some sort of a fluke, I asked her how far back she could go to see how many times "GATW" had been played in years past. She said she could go back nine periods on her computer. She pulled up the numbers and told me that "GATW" has been averaging between 25,000 and 33,000 plays during every six month period. I asked her for the TOTAL number of plays, since 1972, the year it was released, and she said it was just shy of 2,200,000 plays. I did a quick calculation (dividing 2.2 million by 42 years) and it turns out that "Go All The Way" has averaged 52,000 plays per year on domestic radio (that's JUST in the U.S.A.) EVERY YEAR FOR THE PAST 42 YEARS!!!! That's 1000 plays every week, 52 weeks a year, for 42 years! "All By Myself" is still in the lead with about 3,500,000 plays domestically, which averages out to 1,771 plays a week for the past 38 years, but I was frankly stunned by the "GATW" numbers, and how consistent they have been. One note on "ABM". My publishing statements and BMI statements (which include domestic AND foreign sales and airplay) indicate that "ABM" has been played, worldwide, more than twice as many times as it has been played in the U.S., so the real number for "ABM" is probably well over 7,000,000 plays, and counting. Humorous side note: My BMI statement also made note of the fact that "ABM" had just shy of 1,000,000 hits on Pandora, during the past six months. The amount of money paid for almost a million hits: $39.00. Good Lord!!!! e

Backstage at The Roxy in L.A., circa 1976. I was a sweaty mess, after 100 minutes on stage. David is one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. He was absolutely wrecked by being a "teen idol." As great as it was for his bank account, he could never be taken seriously as a musician. It really messed him up, because he was MUCH more talented, as a writer, and as a singer, than anyone ever gave him credit for. He was, and is, a terrific guy. Life is not always kind. I wish him the best, always. e

James, Just for the record, Mike McBride wrote the lyrics for all the verses of "All Though The Night." Mike had never had a songwriting credit, so I helped him "flush out" ( no pun intended ) the chorus, and the music. Truth be told, the idea of playing that song "live" came up, at some point, during the reunion tour, and I said I couldn't sing it with a straight face. The song was , basically, my attempt at getting Mike some songwriting royalties. e