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All by Myself

"All by Myself"
All By Myself - Eric Carmen.jpg
Single by Eric Carmen
from the album Eric Carmen
B-side "Everything"
Released December 1, 1975
Format 7" single
Genre Pop
Length 7:15 (album version)
4:22 (single edit)
Label Arista
Writer(s) Eric Carmen
Producer(s) Jimmy Ienner
Eric Carmen singles chronology
"All by Myself"
(1975)
"Never Gonna Fall in Love Again"
(1976)
"All by Myself"
All by Myself (Celine Dion version).jpg
Single by Celine Dion
from the album Falling into You
Released October 7, 1996
Format CD single, cassette single
Recorded 1995: The Record Plant, Compass Point, Capitol Studios
Genre Soft rock
Length 5:09 (album version)
4:30 (single version)
3:54 (radio edit)
Label Columbia, Epic
Writer(s) Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Producer(s) David Foster
Celine Dion singles chronology
"The Power of the Dream"
(1996)
"All by Myself"
(1996)
"Les derniers seront les premiers"
(1996)
Music video
"All by Myself" on YouTube

"All by Myself" is a power ballad by American artist Eric Carmen released in 1975. The verse is based on the second movement (Adagio sostenuto) of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The chorus is borrowed from the song "Let's Pretend", which Carmen wrote and recorded with the Raspberries in 1972.

The song was the first released on Carmen's first solo LP after leaving the power pop group the Raspberries and was released as the first single in December 1975, to great acclaim. It reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 1 on Cash Box Top 100 Singles and number 3 in Canada. The single sold more than one million copies in the United States and was certified gold by the RIAA in April 1976. "All By Myself" was Carmen's first of eight US Top 40 hits. In the UK, however, this was his only Top 40 success, peaking at number 12. In a 2006 poll for UK's Five programme Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs, Eric Carmen's version of this song was voted seventeenth.

Carmen thought that Rachmaninoff's music was in the public domain and no copyright existed on it. Subsequent to the release of the album, he was contacted by the Rachmaninoff estate and informed otherwise. An agreement was reached in which the estate would receive 12 percent of the royalties from "All by Myself" as well as from "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", which was based on the third movement from Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.

Carmen has stated that he also incorporated part of another melody into this song. The melody was taken from his previous hit with the Raspberries, "Let's Pretend."


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