Rock star Eric Carmen had a disco-tinged "Change Of Heart" in 1978
Written: Dec 13 '04 (Updated Nov 08 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Includes two Hot 100 singles:"Change Of Heart" and "Baby I Need Your Lovin'."
Cons: Expensive Japanese import CD with no bonus tracks.
The Bottom Line: Guests include Burton Cummings, Nigel Olsson, members of Toto, Mike Botts from Bread, Samantha Sang, Valerie Carter, Brian Russell and Brenda Russell.
Don_Krider's Full Review: Change of Heart by Eric Carmen
You have to give Eric Carmen credit: he did try to please everyone.
With Raspberries from 1970-75, the public loved them for Top 40 hits like the Gold-selling (one million units sold for a single in those days) "Go All The Way," but the press didn't like the matching suits the band wore or the "soft rock" they played.
In response, the band made better albums with harder-edged rock music which pleased the critics, but then the fans deserted the band due to the new sound.
Going solo in 1975, Carmen pleased the fans and critics with his debut solo, "Eric Carmen" on Arista, produced by Raspberries' producer Jimmy Ienner (with Raspberries' drummer Mike McBride briefly joining Carmen's solo band).
That bright debut album went Gold (500,000 units sold for an album) and produced a million-selling single with the # 2 chart hit "All By Myself" (more than two decades later, the tune was covered for a Top 5 hit by Celine Dion). Between 1975-76, the album yielded two more hit singles with "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" (# 11; later covered by John Travolta) and "Sunrise" (# 34).
Then Eric decided to please himself (as Rick Nelson sang in "Garden Party": "..if memories were all I had, I'd rather drive a truck..."). "How dare he!" Arista Records' execs seemed to scream.
Carmen parted company with producer Ienner for Elton John producer Gus Dudgeon. Dudgeon and Carmen clashed, so Dudgeon was out and Carmen became a record producer for the first time.
Reports that Eric was going nuts in the studio weren't helped as the cost of making Eric's second album, "Boats Against The Current," pushed the half-million dollar mark. The album was released in 1977, a year late, failed to crack the Top 40 albums (peaking at # 45) and produced one Top 40 single with "She Did It." The album also failed to go Gold.
Pressured to make something that would sell by Clive Davis and Arista Records, Eric retreated to the studio in 1978 to make this less-than-satisfactory Carmen-produced album, "Change Of Heart."
The album:
Essentially a self-described "album of singles" with two tracks recorded but left off of the "Boats Against The Current" album a year earlier (the Carmen-penned "Hey Deanie," which became a million-seller when covered by Shaun Cassidy, and "Someday"), the album has high points like the beautiful Eagles ("Desperado")-like "Desperate Fools" ballad and low points of Bee Gees-disco-inspired nightmares ("Haven't We Come A Long Way" and "End Of The World").
Carmen was tired of fighting for quality music and it, unfortuantely, showed on this effort. The single "Change Of Heart," with Carmen doing an uncanny Andy Gibb impression, hit # 19 in 1978, while his remake of "Baby, I Need Your Loving" peaked at # 62 in early 1979.
The album, "Change Of Heart," peaked at # 137 during its 12 weeks in the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Carmen's album failed to go Gold (singer Samantha Sang had recorded Carmen's title track on her Gold-selling, Barry Gibb-produced "Emotion" LP several months earlier, proving that timing is everything in the music biz; interestingly, Samantha Sang sings backup on two of the tracks on Carmen's album).
Poor Eric.
The songs:
Despite the low-points here, there are good songs on Carmen's album, just the same.
"Someday":
My favorite track on this album will always "Someday." It isn't the best song Eric ever wrote, but it's catchy-as-hell and a wonderful piece of Beach Boys-inspired songwriting genius.
Recorded for the "Boats Against The Current" album in 1977 (and the flipside of that album's sole Top 40 single, "She Did It"), "Change Of Heart" saw the first album release of the tune.
Carmen's lead vocal is backed by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys, Richard Reising of The Euclid Beach Band, Nigel Olsson of The Elton John Band, Curt Becher and Joe Chemay. The backup singers have The Beach Boys' harmonies down pat, and Carmen's pleading, yearning lead vocal is to die for.
The musicianship is stellar as well. Carmen plays acoustic and tack pianos, synthesizers and percussion on the track.
Providing instrumental backing are David Wintour of The Neil Sedaka Band on bass, Olsson on drums and Reising on electric guitar.
"Someday" should have been an A-side single. I believe it has "hit" written all over it, but alas it remained confined to B-side and album track status. It remains an undiscovered gem in Carmen's catalog (Hanson could do a great job covering this tune, for instance).
The lyrics are simple, but speak to any guy's fantasy about a girl he'd like to date:
"Someday / when I'm cool / she's gonna think about how / she used to treat me so cruel / on that someday / man, she'll crawl back to me / someday / when I'm gone / she's gonna see how it feels to be / all alone / on that someday / man, she'll crawl back to me..."
"Desperate Fools":
A huge error on the album is that "Desperate Fools" makes up two of the nine tracks here, presented as a wonderful instrumental in "Desperate Fools Overture" to open the album and as a fully sung ballad "Desperate Fools" to close the album.
These are fine tracks, but when you put so few songs on an album more attention is drawn to that fact when two of the tracks are the same tune.
Still, like The Eagles' "Desperado," Carmen's "Desperate Fools" tells a tale of loneliness --- in this case, Carmen's feelings of isolation after leaving his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, for a few years to live in Los Angeles, California. Midwestern normality was apparently a bit too slow for folks he encountered in "a town full of desperate fools."
Carmen tells his tale like a 1950's movie western theme song. You can just see the tumbleweeds rolling past him as he plays some stunning acoustic piano, backed by handsome harmonica playing from Tommy Morgan (whose harmonica playing as graced numerous film/TV soundtrack albums the last few decades, including two "Simpsons" CDs) and string arrangements by David Campbell.
The lyrics are as much a commentary on the highs and lows of success in pop music as they are a desperate pleading about the powers-that-be who were trying to mold Carmen into an artist he didn't want to be:
"I've been up too high / I've been down too low / I've been searchin' for somethin' / with nowhere to go / thought I'd make it alone / but I'm so far from home / in a town full of desperate fools / oh, the sun beats down on the L. A. scene / but you can't feel the cold / when the grass looks so green / and the games that I've played / were not worth what I paid / in a town full of desperate fools..."
Then Carmen delivers the lyrical knockout punch: "I've been taking my life / one day at a time / tryin' to piece it all together / but I know in my mind / that I'm starting to be / what they want me to be / and I wonder sometimes / what's becoming of me..."
"Hey Deanie":
Shaun Cassidy had already scored a million-selling Carmen-penned hit with "That's Rock 'n' Roll" when Carmen offered him "Hey Deanie" in 1977. Reportedly, Carmen felt the song didn't fit the "Boats Against The Current" autobiographical theme but producer Gus Dudgeon wanted Carmen's original version of "Hey Deanie" on the album since he saw "Top 10 hit written all over it."
Carmen won the "Boats Against The Current" album argument and Cassidy had another Carmen-penned million-selling Top 10 hit.
Carmen's version of "Hey Deanie" on the "Change Of Heart" album opens with acapella vocals, then becomes an Elton John-styled rocker complete with Elton John's drummer, Nigel Olsson, playing a rock-steady beat.
Carmen filled out the hard-driving rock sound on "Hey Deanie" with bassist David Wintour (Neil Sedaka), acoustic pianist Burton Cummings (The Guess Who's lead singer), guitarist Richie Zito (Toto) and electric guitarist Richard Reising (Euclid Beach Band).
Carmen himself plays acoustic guitar, tack piano, percussion and drums (alongside Olsson) on the track as well. The sound is big and pure.
Carmen wrote the tune about Natalie Wood's character in the film "Splendor In The Grass":
"Hey Deanie / won't you come out tonight / the stars are dancin' / like diamonds in the moonlight / and we could never find a better time / to be in love..."
"Heaven Can Wait":
One of several artists approached to submit songs for the Warren Beatty film "Heaven Can Wait," that Carmen's offering didn't make the cut is a crying shame since ballads don't get any prettier than this.
Carmen's lead vocal is pure and sweet, uncluttered by backing vocals, on this ballad.
Carmen limited himself to playing percussion on the track while some of the best session players in the business played along (drummer Russ Kunkel, bassist Leland Sklar, acoustic pianist Craig Doerge and acoustic guitarist Fred Tackett).
In the hands of a less talented singer, the tune would be easily forgotten. In Carmen's hands, "Heaven Can Wait" is a delightful musical memory compelling the listener to sing along on the chorus:
"...life is short, my darlin' / but tomorrow come what may / you are here in my heart / and that's something that no one can take away / oh, now that I've found a love that's forever / heaven can wait 'til then / oh, at last I can see how sweet love can be / so if it's not too late / heaven can wait..."
"Change Of Heart":
The album's sole Top 40 single, "Change Of Heart" peaked at # 19 in 1978. Carmen sounds more like a Bee Gee singing a disco tune here (he originally wrote it as a Beatles-styled ballad, but disco had taken over the world in 1978, so to be hip, arrangements changed).
It's a very listenable song, but very un-Eric Carmen sounding. Some fine musicians appear here, including drummer Mike Botts from Bread, guitarist Richie Zito from Toto and percussionist Jeff Porcaro from Toto, among others. Carmen is uncredited with playing any instruments here!
Providing backing vocals are Samantha Sang, Valerie Carter, Donny Gerard, Brian Russell and Brenda Russell.
It's another song that unfortunately helped the rock press write Carmen off as "a second-hand Barry Manilow":
"...so if you ever have a change of heart / just remember it's not too late to start / if you still believe in what love can do..."
Recommendation:
This is an expensive CD import ($30-plus) from Japan with some good tracks and a couple of disco fillers that are best forgotten.
If you can get "Change Of Heart" cheap or if it ever is released on CD in the U. S., pick it up --- "Someday" and "Desperate Fools" are worth having in your pop music collection.
The CD:
The nine tracks clock in at 30:19 minutes. The 16-page CD booklet is partially in the Japanese language (all biographical info is this way) and partially in English (lyrics and personnel listings).
The tracks:
"Desperate Fools Overture," "Haven't We Come A Long Way" (released as a single, it didn't chart), "End Of The World" (later covered by The Euclid Beach Band), "Heaven Can Wait," "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "Change Of Heart" (covered by Samatha Sang in a much-different arrangement), "Hey Deanie" and "Desperate Fools."
Eric Carmen today:
Carmen began one of many so-called "comebacks" in 1987-88, scoring back-to-back Top 5 singles with "Hungry Eyes" (from the film "Dirty Dancing") and "Make Me Lose Control."
He followed this up with a hit "Best Of" collection, a tour with former Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr in 2000 and now with an unexpected reunion of his beloved Raspberries.
The Raspberries have indeed reunited and are hot again. On November 26, 2004, they played Cleveland's House Of Blues in a sold-out show for 1,400 fans (tickets sold out less than two hours after going on sale).
The band played for two-and-a-half hours (no Carmen solo material, but the band surprised fans with covers of a few Beatles tunes and The Who's "Can't Explain" mixed in among numerous Raspberries' songs). A second show at the same venue is scheduled for New Year's Eve (it was nearly sold out at press time).
A third reunion show is scheduled for January 15, 2005, in Chicago, Illinois, at the House of Blues venue there.
A DVD with footage from both concerts will follow in 2005, along with a live CD. Full details are at http://www.ericcarmen.com (which is selling future Raspberries' collectables now, from autographed merchandise to T-shirts and pins, just in time for your Christmas gift-giving).
The band, with its original lineup (Carmen, Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti), toured in the U. S. in 2004-2005.
Just released:
Eric Carmen appears on Live On Sunset Strip (Deluxe Edition of 2 CDs and a DVD recorded during the 2005 reunion tour) By Raspberries, a 2007 Rykodisc release with liner notes byBruce Springsteen and a photo of John Lennon in a Raspberries sweatshirt in the CD booklet, produced by Mark Linett and Eric Carmen: http://www.epinions.com/content_393207123588
On the web:
Capitol/EMI's 24-bit digitally remastered CD "Greatest" by Raspberries was released in May of 2005 in the U. S. and Europe. It features all 7 of Raspberries Hot 100 singles, has 20 tracks and runs 78:53 minutes: http://www.epinions.com/content_186044681860
To Epinions.Com Music Category Lead Shelly, aka Lambchops (http://www.epinions.com/user-lambchops), for adding "Change Of Heart" by Eric Carmen to the Epinions.Com musical database.
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