Released November 7, 1987 Label RCA | Genre Pop rock, soft rock | |
B-side "Where Are You Tonight" Recorded 1987, Beachwood Studios, Beachwood, Ohio Length 4:06
3:49 (single version) | ||
"Hungry Eyes" is a song performed by American artist Eric Carmen, a former member of the band Raspberries, and was featured in the film Dirty Dancing. The song was recorded at Beachwood Studios in Beachwood, Ohio in 1987. "Hungry Eyes" peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 on the Cash Box Top 100 in 1988. The song was not released commercially in the UK, but it managed to peak at #82 in January 1988, having charted purely on import sales.
Contents
Songwriters Franke Previte and John DeNicola wrote the song, as well as another hit from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life".
Cover versions
The song was covered by Swedish singer Anders Fernette and by New Found Glory, and features as a bonus track on the Japanese/UK version of their covers album From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II.
A parody version of Hungry Eyes was used in a series of 1989 commercials for NY Pizza in Hanford, California.
Performer
Eric Carmen, the performer of "Hungry Eyes", had been the vocalist of the Raspberries. Carmen released his first solo album Eric Carmen, which contained the worldwide hit with "All By Myself" .
"Hungry Eyes" was his biggest hit and was written for the film Dirty Dancing, in 1987.
Jimmy Ienner, the producer of Carmen's band from his early career, The Raspberries, asked him to sing this song for the Dirty Dancing album because he was familiar with Carmen's musical style. Carmen was hesitant to produce a song for another film sound track because he believed that sound track music had "horrible deaths", but Carmen recorded an extremely popular song that can still be heard on radio stations and TV commercials.