All by Myself
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| “All by Myself” | ||
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| Single by Eric Carmen from the album Eric Carmen |
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| Released | 1975 | |
| Format | Single | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 7:13 | |
| Label | Rhino/Arista | |
| Writer(s) | Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff | |
"All by Myself" is a power ballad written and performed by Eric Carmen in 1975. It borrows very heavily from the second movement (Adagio Sostenuto) of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18, which Carmen believed was in the public domain. Having found it was not, only after the record had been issued, Carmen had to come to an agreement with the Rachmaninoff estate. [1] Carmen's full version has an extended piano solo and lasts over seven minutes, although there is also an edited version at 4:22. 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.
The song was originally recorded by the author and released in 1975 to great success. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on Cashbox Top 100 Singles and #12 in the UK. Carmen's original version has spawned numerous cover versions, by such artists as Sheryl Crow, Céline Dion, even Frank Sinatra. It should not be confused with the jazz standard written by Irving Berlin and performed by Ella Fitzgerald.
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[edit] Covers
[edit] Céline Dion
"All by Myself" is the fourth (or third, depending on the country) hit single from Céline Dion's Falling into You album. It was released on October 7, 1996 in Europe, January 13, 1997 in Australia and March 11, 1997 in North America. A Spanish version, called "Sola Otra Vez", was added to the Falling into You Latin America and Spanish edition, and as a B-side to other singles from that album. It became available worldwide on Dion's later compilation The Collector's Series, Volume One, and was included on some editions of Dion's 1999 greatest hits album All the Way… A Decade of Song.
| “All by Myself” | |||||
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| Single by Céline Dion from the album Falling into You |
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| Released | October 7, 1996 | ||||
| Format | CD single, cassette single | ||||
| Recorded | The Record Plant, Compass Point, Capitol Studios | ||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||
| Length | 5:12 (Album Version) 4:00 (Radio Edit) |
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| Label | Columbia, Epic | ||||
| Writer(s) | Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff | ||||
| Producer | David Foster | ||||
| Certification | Gold (United States) Silver (France, United Kingdom) |
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| Céline Dion singles chronology | |||||
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The single became one of Dion's biggest hits in the United States, reaching #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (for three weeks) and Hot Latin Pop Airplay (two weeks). It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 (#7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, #5 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales). It was also #1 on the U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 (for two weeks), and a top ten hit in France, United Kingdom, Belgium Wallonie, Ireland and Poland. In Canada, "All by Myself" was released as a promotional single only, hitting #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts. "All by Myself" was certified gold in the U.S. (500,000), and silver in the UK (200,000) and France (163,000).
[edit] Karel Gott
Czech singer Karel Gott recorded a Czech cover version "My brother Jan" about Czech student Jan Palach who burned himself to death as a protest against Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in January 1969. The song was recorded in 1977 while the Soviet troops were still present in the country. However, Gott enjoyed a successful career after the recording.
[edit] Other cover versions
| Year | Artist | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Frank Sinatra | Album Live Unreleased |
| 1977 | Hank Williams, Jr. | Album One Night Stands |
| 1982 | Shirley Bassey | Album All by Myself |
| 1987 | Luis Miguel | Album Soy Como Quiero Ser |
| 1994 | Margaret Urlich | Album The Deepest Blue |
| 1994 | Sheryl Crow | B-side to single Run Baby Run |
| 1995 | Babes in Toyland | Album Nemesisters |
| 1995 | Jewel | In the background of a scene in the film Clueless |
| 2001 | Jamie O'Neal | Film Bridget Jones's Diary and its soundtrack |
| 2001 | Michael Ball | Album First Love |
| 2002 | Richard Clayderman | Album All by Myself (instrumental) |
| 2003 | Erika Alcocer Luna | Album La Academia 2. Vol. 11: La Gran Final |
| 2003 | Giulia Ottonello | Album Amici - I Ragazzi del 2003 |
| 2004 | Eddie Murphy | as Donkey in a scene in Shrek 2 |
| 2004 | Gerard Joling | Album Nostalgia |
| 2004 | Ryohei Yamamoto | Single "Set Free" |
| 2005 | LaToya London | Album Love & Life |
| 2005 | Il Divo | Album Ancora |
| 2005 | Amici Forever | Album Defined |
| 2006 | Leona Lewis | Performance X Factor |
| 2007 | Lazlo Bane | Album Guilty Pleasures |
| 2007 | Ricardo Montaner | Album Las Mejores Canciones de Mundo |
| 2007 | John Barrowman | Album Another Side |
[edit] References
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| Preceded by "Love Machine" by Miracles |
Cash Box Top 100 singles(Eric Carmen version) March 13, 1976 |
Succeeded by "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" by Four Seasons |
