All by Myself

"All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, released by Arista Records in December 1975 as the first single from Carmen's self-titled debut album. The verse is based on the second movement (Adagio sostenuto) of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff's 1900–01 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The chorus was taken from the song "Let's Pretend", which Carmen had written and recorded with his band the Raspberries in 1972. The slide guitar solo was performed by studio guitarist Hugh McCracken. The song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Carmen's biggest hit on the pop chart.

Background and composition

According to Eric Carmen, he first wrote the solo part of the song, writing four bars at a time, eventually completing the interlude after two months. He needed to put this into a song, and after listening to Sergei Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto, a piece famously used to underscore the 1945 British film Brief Encounter, he adapted the melody of its second movement to write the verse. Rachmaninoff's music was in the public domain in the United States at that time, so Carmen thought no copyright existed on it, but it was still protected outside the U.S. subsequent to the release of the album. He was later contacted by the Rachmaninoff estate and informed that it was protected. 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 stated that he also incorporated part of another melody into this song. The melody of the chorus was taken from his previous 1973 hit with the Raspberries, "Let's Pretend".