It’s a uncommon factor, however Raspberries simply stored getting higher.
Oh, the charts do not replicate that. Their largest single, “Go All the Way,” was on Raspberries’ self-titled debut. Starting Over, their ultimate LP, completed 107 spots additional again than 1972’s Fresh on the Billboard album chart.
But the charts aren’t at all times honest. Raspberries’ greatest single, a 1974 eruption of energy pop aptly titled “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” by some means completed behind the lesser No. 16 hit “I Wanna Be with You.”
Maybe their time had merely handed by then: Eric Carmen left for a solo profession that included its personal moments of heartbreaking magnificence and spit-shined hooks. Maybe it was by no means their time, contemplating how comparable Raspberries’ best-known songs sounded to the pre-psychedelic period of pop rock. We have been certain to snap awake from this second of nostalgic reverie, proper?
That’s the factor about this band, although. Raspberries have been way over bubblegum, manner deeper than pastiche. As they indulged parallel tendencies towards rougher, randier sounds, their albums became extra balanced, better-conceived triumphs. LPs that few critics hailed, and fewer nonetheless listeners purchased, emerged as their absolute best.
Carmen and Wally Bryson noticed bassist Dave Smalley and drummer Jim Bonfanti changed by Scott McCarl and Michael McBride, however that solely accelerated a course of wherein Raspberries extra confidently mixed the melodic genius of the Beatles and Beach Boys with the punchy gumption of the Who and Humble Pie.
In the tip, as this countdown exhibits, Raspberries have been no singles band. Yet all of it had solely lasted roughly three years. Our checklist of Raspberries Albums Ranked Worst to Best follows that rocket experience:
Ranking Every Raspberries Album
As our checklist confirms, these power-pop geniuses simply stored getting higher.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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