Fresh Singles

[seattlesteve]

Eric: I'm the first to back you up that an upstart band from Cleveland doesn't have any power to tell the label that signed the Beach Boys and Beatles, what the singles would be. Having said that, they did grab by far the two best choices for singles off of Fresh, but privately did it ever cross your mind at the time that If You Change Your Mind and Nobody Knows were pretty radio friendly too and they easily could have grabbed at least a third single? Just curious.

[angelina]

THAT'S a great question Steve...because they are such solid songs!

[Tony Cartmill]

Yes, but I want "Fresh" singles written by Eric in 2010...and not these "tired Fresh policies of the past."

[seattlesteve]

Eric has a ton of unreleased copywrites, that combined with maybe repulling a couple songs off of Winter Dreams (Top Down screams for Jim's drum treatment, think new single)I think his next album is already wrote.

[Eric Carmen]

When I played the Rock Hall in 2000, Bob Santelli, their education director, interviewed me for about an hour onstage. I remember he asked me about the music I listened to growing up that inspired me, then about specific artists ( Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones etc. ) and which songs I liked. My answer was "the singles." Bob laughed, but I think he was genuinely taken aback by my answer. The truth is, the singles were almost always the best tracks on the album, back then. I'm sure there were some other good tracks on that Hollies album I bought in 1965 or 1966, but the only ones I remember were "Look Through Any Window" and "I'm Alive." As much as I love the Rolling Stones, you'd be hard pressed to find a better track than "Satisfaction" on "Out Of Our Heads." That's not to say I didn't enjoy "Play With Fire" and some of the other tracks, but they just weren't as great as "Satifaction."

As a direct result of my personal taste in recordings, whenever I sat down to write, I was trying to write a hit single, not an album cut. I wanted every song I wrote to sound like a hit, because I never knew which one would turn out great or fizzle in the studio.

I don't know why Capitol didn't release a third and/or fourth single from Fresh. The only thing I can think of is that "Side Three" was ready to go. We recorded all four of those albums in two years!

[angelina]

Four friggin albums in two years. Could you imagine?

Talk about intense pressure!

[Brian Mc Carthy]

It really is a bummer, when these record companies with their stubbornness run interference in the direction any band has plans for.Randy Bachman once mentioned that mercury records rushed BTO into releasing Four Wheel Drive. It was the follow up to Not Fragile. Mercury records wanted Bto to hurry because they did not want them to lose momentum off the super success of Not fragile. Randy was very annoyed because he had to compromise which resulted in the finish product not being exactly how he intended it to be.

[James]

Eric,

I reckon if you limited yourself to singles, you probably have several album cut type songs stored away somewhere, or still yet to be written. Songs similar to "I Can Remember", "All By Myself" (long version), and "Run Away", or Elton John's "Tonight", "We All Fall In Love Sometimes/Curtains" etc.

I love longer album cut type songs. As a lover of Eric Carmen music, how cool it would be to hear some longer, more intricate type songs you might have somewhere in stock, or have yet to write.

Thanks again for the behind the scenes insights. We're a fortunate bunch!..

James