The biggest misnomer about the Raspberries is they were a one-hit wonder.
Far from the truth. True fans of the band and 1970s music radio junkies know this for sure. Forget the fact that Sirius XM '70s on 7 plays the crap out of "Go All The Way." Though it is a classic rock staple and everyone knows every last air-guitar lick of that song and enjoys Eric Carmen's amazing vocals, the biggest injustice about this band was they were more than that one song.
As a matter of fact, another injustice of the band is why they are not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in their backyard in Cleveland, Ohio. They were just as influential a '70s rock band as some of the acts that are in there now or like Chicago and KISS, who still wait that call from the Hall.
Though most everyone knows of Carmen's work both with the band and solo (his biggest hit ever was the 1976 No. 2 smash of self-loathing "All By Myself"), the band also includes guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti and bassist David Smalley.
Their 1972 self-titled debut album was infamous because the geniuses at their record company, Capitol Records, thought it'd be a cute promotion to have the album scented in raspberries. Nice thought, but when people were literally passing out after taking a whiff of the overwhelming scratch-and-sniff, the record company thought twice and re-released the album without the sweet-smelling cover. But it was on that album America was introduced to "Go All The Way," a No. 5 hit for the band and their lone Top 10 hit together.
On the heels of that album came the second release, "Fresh Raspberries," which featured two more Top 40 hits -- "I Wanna Be With You" and "Let's Pretend." The third album was far from a success in '73, "Side 3," but the fourth and final album featuring Carmen's vocals, "Starting Over," featured new bassist Scott McCarl and drummer Michael McBride, whose drumming on this album was an inspiration to E Street Band's Max Weinberg to find his style behind Bruce Springsteen, especially on "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," according to the liner notes of "Let There Be Drums, Vol. 3, The '70s."
That album, which featured more of a hard-rock edge to it, is highlighted by the five-and-a-half-minute opus "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)," the band's last Top 40 hit that features a fadeout near the end of the song that is brought back in with McBride's thunderous drums.
Carmen left the group soon after the band released this album for his solo career and the group broke up in 1975. But the original quartet of Carmen, Bryson, Bonfanti and Smalley came back together in 2004 and did a well-received national tour in 2005 (Carmen and Bryson shown jamming in the picture above), which resulted in the 2007 live CD "Live On The Sunset Strip." The last concert the band performed was in December 2007 in their hometown of Cleveland. They have not done anything since and who knows what their status is at the moment. Reportedly, the 63-year-old Carmen, who is living back in the Cleveland area, only works now whenever he feels like doing so.
The Raspberries were more than just one song. They were a great band. And their following is still large to this day. Here's hoping they one day go back out on tour before it's too late.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyHHM17uzXY
Raspberries gave their fans an opportunity to "go back to high school" with a series of incredible concerts from '04 - '07. I think if you missed one of those, you are unfortunately out of luck. I was at their first reunion concert in '04. When the curtain opened to the chords of their second hit, it was (over used word coming up - I mean it in the real sense) unbelievable. It had been over 30 years since I had seen them.
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