GREATEST HITS
The Raspberries
Capitol 72435-24396-2-1
January 2000 (withdrawn)
1. Don't Want To Say Goodbye
2. Go All The Way
3. I Can Remember
4. I Wanna Be With You
5. Let's Pretend
6. Nobody Knows
7. If You Change Your Mind
8. Drivin' Around
9. Tonight
10. I'm A Rocker
11. Ecstasy
12. Last Dance
13. Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
14. Cruisin' Music
15. I Don't Know What I Want
16. Starting Over
17. I Saw The Light [original demo]
18. Please Let Me Come Home [original demo]
19. Oh Tonight [original demo]
20. Come Around And See Me [original demo]
Tracks 1-16 produced by Jimmy Ienner.
Tracks 17-20 previously unreleased; produced by The Raspberries.
PERSONNEL:
Eric Carmen - lead vocals, piano, bass, rhythm guitar
Wally Bryson - lead guitar, vocals
Jim Bonfanti - drums, vocals [tracks 1-12, 17-20]
Dave Smalley - rhythm guitar, vocals [tracks 1-12]
Scott McCarl - bass, acoustic guitar. vocals [tracks 13-16]
Michael McBride - drums [tracks 13-16]
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LINER NOTES for tracks 17-20 (from the 12-page CD booklet):
17. I SAW THE LIGHT [original demo]
(Carmen-Bryson)
Recorded at Agency Recording, Cleveland, March 1971.
WALLY BRYSON: Those mixes and demos really did capture what we were aiming for on the first album. That's still one of my favorites - I like the way it turned out. I was living at my sister's house in Euclid, Ohio, and I wrote the lyrics to "I Saw The Light" and "With You In My Life." Eric and I then collaborated on the way to rehearsal and he had some music. We just put it together that way.
ERIC CARMEN: I think the demo has a better vocal than how I sang it on our first album. I twas closer to what I was hoping to capture. The tempo was better - it was more relaxed, it felt more like we were at home. There was a lot more spontaneity with those demos than on the first album, especially on "Come Around And See Me." I think we were looser because it was just us. I think it was the most successful collaboration that Wally and I did. I thought it was a really great melding of words and music, and Wally's background vocals on the chorus really made the tune.
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18. PLEASE LET ME COME BACK HOME [original demo]
(Carmen-Bryson)
Recorded at Agency Recording, Cleveland, March 1971.
WALLY BRYSON: I really like that. I wrote most of the lyrics to that.
ERIC CARMEN: Wally played a mean harmonica on that. "Please Let Me Come Home" was a low vocal for me, and I sang it a little like Elvis. We did the four demos at Agency in about a week; I think we did one a day.
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19. OH TONIGHT [original demo]
(Carmen-Bryson)
Recorded at Agency Recording, Cleveland, March 1971.
ERIC CARMEN: It was a nice little tune. I like the track itself - the tempo, the feel of it was good. The reason "Oh Tonight" and "Please Let Me Come Back Home" didn't go on the record was we felt they were too derivative, a little too overboard in some direction. It's a lot easier to hear them now, thirty years after The Beatles (laughs) than to hear them a couple of years after. Distance makes things a lot more charming sometimes.
WALLY BRYSON: "Oh Tonight" was an early collaboration with me and Eric. We did those demos at Agency as a trio - Arnie Rosenberg engineered. Eric played bass and piano, I played all the guitars, and Jim's on drums.
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20. COME AROUND AND SEE ME [original demo]
(Bryson)
Recorded at Agency Recording, Cleveland, March 1971.
WALLY BRYSON: These were the songs that got Jimmy Ienner interested in the Raspberries, because at the end we're goofing around. He said he liked us because we weren't taking ourselves seriously.