Eric Carmen – "All By Myself" (1975)

I think of all the friends I've known

But when I dial the telephone

Nobody's home

The following quote is from the abstract of an article describing the findings of a large national survey that was recently published in the British Journal of Psychology:

[P]opulation density is negatively, and frequency of socialization with friends is positively, associated with life satisfaction.  More importantly, the main associations of life satisfaction with population density and socialization with friends significantly interact with intelligence, and, in the latter case, the main association is reversed among the extremely intelligent.  More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more frequent socialization with friends. 

Let’s translate that into plain English:

1.  Generally speaking, people who live in densely-populated environments – e.g., large cities – are less happy than people who live in suburbs, who are less happy than people who live in rural areas . . . as this graph illustrates:

2.  Generally speaking, the more people socialize with their friends , the happier they are.

3.  The first statement is just as true for extremely intelligent people as it is for less intelligent people – in other words, extremely intelligent people who live in large cities are less happy than extremely intelligent people who live in the suburbs or rural areas.

4.  But the second statement is not true for extremely intelligent people – in other words, the more that extremely intelligent people socialize with their friends, the less happy they are.

Let’s cut to the chase here.  If you love hanging out with your friends all the time, you’e just not that smart.

* * * * *

Eric Carmen was the lead singer of the Raspberries, a fabulous power-pop group from Cleveland whose biggest hit, “Go All The Way,” was a major tour de force.  (“Go All The Way” was released on the group’s eponymous debut album, which had a little scratch-and-sniff sticker that smelled like . . . do I really need to tell you?)

After the Raspberries broke up, Carmen embarked on a solo career.  His eponymous debut solo album included two singles with melodies that were inspired by Rachmaninoff compositions.  The melody for “All By Myself” is based on the theme of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2 in C minor.  (You can click here if you'd like to listen to Yuja Wang's performance of that movement.)

Carmen’s solo music was a little girly for my taste.  But I bought his first album as a gift for a beautiful young woman I was seeing at the time.  (Smartest five bucks I ever spent – the gift was a big hit.)

Here’s “All By Myself”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Raspberries – "Go All the Way" (1972)

I never knew how complete love could be

'Til she kissed me and said, "BABY,

PLEASE GO ALL THE WAY!"

I know it's Friday the 13th, but if this song doesn't get the job done for you tomorrow night, you need to work on your game, bro.

Here's a Valentine's Day tip for all of you: no homemade cards, please!

Dale Carnegie, the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, wrote that "There is no sweeter sound to any person's ear than the sound of their own name."  (He should have written "the sound of his or her name," of course, but we'll overlook that for the time being.)

Carnegie's words are true for most people, but are not true for teenaged boys.  If you are a teenaged boy, there is no sweeter sound to your ears than "BABY, PLEASE GO ALL THE WAY!"  (By "teenaged boy," I of course mean "male of any age.")

The Raspberries released "Go All the Way" in the summer of 1972, and it was a big hit.  Which should come as no surprise, given that it may be the ultimate AM radio song.  

"Go All the Way" is crammed full of hooks and riffs and other pop-music goodies.  A parsimonious songwriter might have squeezed three or four songs out of "Go All the Way."

But God bless Raspberries frontman Eric Carmen, who wrote "Go All the Way."  Instead of prudently setting off each of his Fourth of July rockets and fountains and Roman candles one at a time, he just threw a match into the box and then ran like hell before the whole kit-and-kaboodle blew up in one magnificent eruption of sound and fury.

Carmen a Cleveland native, was a precocious little son of a b*tch.  At age two, he was entertaining his family by singing Tony Bennett and Johnnie Ray songs.  When he was six, his aunt – a Cleveland Orchestra violist – taught him to play the violin.  

Carmen was also a classically trained pianist.  After hearing the Beatles' early records, he taught himself to play guitar and started writing songs.  (There are a lot of self-taught guitarists, but I have yet to hear of a self-taught classical pianist.)

When the Raspberries broke up, Eric Carmen went on to have a successful solo career.  His first hit single, "All By Myself," was inspired by one of the themes in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Eric Carmen had fabulous hair:

But what was he thinking when he went blond?

"All By Myself" was released on Carmen's self-titled debut solo album, which I gave to a young woman I was seeing in 1975.  It was a very successful gift, although I don't remember her shouting "BABY, PLEASE GO ALL THE WAY!" when I gave it to her.

Here's "Go All the Way":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: