Eric Carmen had been the lead singer for the Raspberries from 1970 until when the group broke up. His first song as a solo artist was “All By Myself.” The verse is based on the second movement of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 1900–01 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. That composition was out of copyright in the US but the Rachmaninoff’ estate filed a lawsuit as it was still in copyright in Europe. Eric ended up giving 12% of the song’s royalties  to the estate.

The song got up to #2 on the Billboard chart for three weeks (Feb. 28 – March 20). On the Cash Box chart it got all the way to the top for the week of March 7 – 14.

Eris had modest success until the late 1980s. He died in 2024

Here he is performing the single version of the song, all by himself. The album version is 7 minutes and 10 seconds.