Eric Carmen’s greatest hits owed a debt to Rachmaninoff

The lasting legacy of singer/songwriter Eric Carmen, who died last weekend at 74, was most prominently of a couple of top 40 hits that struck a universal chord among the lovelorn — “All by Myself” and “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.” “All by Myself,” in particular, scored a huge hit as a remake by Celine Dion and has been used to poignant and dramatic effect in many movies and TV shows, including Bridget Jones’s Diary, Clueless and Dawn of the Dead.

The casual listener might not have known that Carmen “borrowed” the melodies of both those hits from Sergei Rachmaninoff — “All by Myself” from the Russian composer’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” from his Symphony No. 2. (An equal-opportunity appropriator, Carmen also co-opted his own chorus from “Let’s Pretend,” a hit for his earlier power-pop group the Raspberries, for a portion of “All by Myself.”)

To be sure, Rachmaninoff did write grand and passionate melodies. His music was no stranger to popular culture; notably, that same adagio from Piano Concerto No. 2 that Carmen used provided the theme to the classic doomed romance Brief Encounter. The producers of that 1945 movie gave the composer credit.

But Carmen originally did not, apparently believing that the music was in the public domain because Rachmaninoff had been dead for more than 30 years. The composer’s estate begged to differ and took him to task after the songs hit the charts in the mid-1970s. The resulting lawsuit claimed that Carmen’s use of the melodies without permission or attribution constituted copyright infringement. As part of the settlement, Carmen agreed to share credit with and provide royalties to the estate.

In a 1991 interview with songwriter Gordon Pogoda, Carmen said, “The reason I used those things was twofold. First, they happened to move me. That stuff gave me goosebumps every time I listened to it.

“Also, I thought that it’s a crime that there are some spectacular melodies in classical music that the general public doesn’t get exposed to. I thought this was a way for me to bring some of the classical music that I love, incorporate it into a pop song for a new decade of kids.”

Listen to Carmen’s hits and the sources of his inspiration below.

“All by Myself” (1975)

Adagio, Piano Concerto No. 2 (Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1901)

“Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” (1976)

Adagio, Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff, 1907)