B-side "Everything" Format 7" single Label Arista | Released December 1, 1975 Genre Pop | |
Length 7:15 (album version)
4:22 (single edit) | ||
"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.
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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."
Carmen's original version has spawned numerous cover versions by such artists as Rico J. Puno in 1976, Celine Dion in 1996, Frank Sinatra, Igudesman & Joo, Il Divo, and Only Men Aloud!.
Celine Dion version
One of the most notable cover versions of "All by Myself" was recorded by Celine Dion in 1996. It was the fourth (or third, depending on the country) hit single from her album Falling into You. Produced by David Foster at Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas, it was released on October 7, 1996 in Europe, January 13, 1997 in Australia, and March 11, 1997 in North America.
There were three music videos made. The first one was released in October 1996. It contains fragments from Dion's photo session for the Falling into You album cover and some scenes from her Live à Paris concert. It was made for the single version and it was directed by Nigel Dick. The second version was made for the UK market with the same white T-shirt scenes but adding footage of a young couple in love at Christmas time, instead of scenes from Dion's concert. This was made for the album version. Finally, a live music video was released in March 1997 in North America (from the 1996 concert in Montreal).
Dion performed this song many times during world tours, TV shows and music events such as the Grammy Awards (1997), Billboard Music Awards (1997) and Bambi Awards (1996). A performance from her 2008-2009 Taking Chances Tour can be found on the Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert DVD/CD. It is currently included in the setlist of Dion's Las Vegas residency show Céline which premiered on March 15, 2011. The song was also performed during the 2013 Sans attendre Tour; the Quebec City performance was included in the Céline... une seule fois / Live 2013 CD/DVD.
Dion also recorded a Spanish version of "All by Myself," called "Sola otra vez" (English: By Myself Again). It was added to the Falling into You Latin American/Spanish edition, and as a B-side to other singles from that album. This version became available worldwide on Dion's later compilation The Collector's Series, Volume One. The CD single was released in 1996 in Brazil only. Dion's "Sola otra vez" was selected the number one Spanish language cover of an English pop song by TheSpanishVersion.Org.
The "All by Myself" single became one of Dion's biggest hits in the United States, reaching number 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (for three weeks) and the Latin Pop Airplay (two weeks). It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 (number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and number 5 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales). It was also a top 10 hit in France, United Kingdom, Wallonia in Belgium and the Republic of Ireland. In Canada, "All by Myself" was released as a promotional single only, hitting number 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. "All by Myself" was certified gold in the US (500,000), and silver in the UK (200,000) and France (165,000).
The track was included on some editions of Dion's greatest hits All the Way... A Decade of Song in 1999 and on My Love: Essential Collection in 2008.
This version also features on the ITV game show Take Me Out if the contestant leaves the show without a date.
Critical reception
Dion's cover received positive reviews. New York Times editor Stephen Holden wrote that the remake, along with "Because You Loved Me," "are the strongest cuts on an album crammed with formulaic romantic bombast." Music.uk.launch.yahoo.com editor, Dan Leroy, wrote: "Trying to out-emote Eric Carmen was almost crazy enough to work." Entertainment Weekly editor Chuck Eddy said:" ...But only in her desolate cover of Eric Carmen's All by Myself does she truly crash through the glass ceiling of passion."
Other cover versions
In 1994, "All By Myself" was covered by New Zealand singer Margaret Urlich. Her version reached #100 in Australia in November 1994, and #26 in New Zealand in March 1995.
The 2001 motion picture Bridget Jones's Diary featured a cover version performed by Jamie O'Neal showing actress Renée Zellweger singing to it in the famous pajamas scene.
In 2008, the male voice choir Only Men Aloud! covered the song on their self-named album and also released it as a single.
Use in popular culture
The Carmen version is used in the video introduction for Conan O'Brien's "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour", when an obese and bearded version of the talk show host struggles to cope with losing his job as host of Tonight Show. The Carmen version is also featured in the second season's episode 17 of the popular 1990s sitcom Friends (set on Joey & Chandler's friendship), and a season 4 episode of the hit sitcom That '70s Show. It was also featured in the films Under Wraps and To Die For. The version is used also in the film I nuovi mostri directed by Dino Risi, with Ornella Muti and Yorgo Voyagis. In the Disney film Zootopia, a snippet is heard of it as the main character, Judy Hopps browses through one depressing song after another on her clock radio.
The song was used advertisements: