All by Myself

For other uses, see All by Myself (disambiguation).

"All by Myself"
Single by Eric Carmen
from the album Eric Carmen
Released	December 1975
Format	Single
Genre	Pop, soft rock
Length	7:15 (album version) 4:56 (single edit)
Label	Arista
Writer(s)	Eric Carmen
Producer	Jimmy Ienner
Certification	Gold (U.S.)
Eric Carmen singles chronology
"All by Myself" (1975) "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" (1976)

"All by Myself" is a power ballad written and performed by Eric Carmen 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 borrows from the song "Let's Pretend" that Carmen had recorded with the Raspberries in 1972.

The song was the first release from Carmen's first solo LP after leaving the power pop group the Raspberries and was originally recorded by the author and released in December 1975 to great success. 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 U.S. Top 40 hits. In the UK, however, this was his only Top 40 hit, 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's original version has spawned numerous cover versions by such artists as Céline Dion, Frank Sinatra, and Igudesman & Joo.

On his second solo LP, Boats Against the Current, Carmen had a subsequent Top 40 hit entitled "She Did It" which was the antithesis of "All by Myself." It is a happy answer to the loneliness and lovelessness described in this song and its equally melancholy follow-up "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again."

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 a season 4 episode of the hit sitcom That 70's Show.

Charts

Chart (1976)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	6
Cash Box Chart	1
Canadian Singles Chart	3
UK Singles Chart	12

End of year charts

End of year chart (1976)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	40

Notable covers

Year	Artist/group	Notes
1976	Frank Sinatra	Album Live Unreleased
1977	Hank Williams, Jr.	Album One Night Stands
1977	Karel Gott	Version "My Brother Jan" about Czechoslovak student Jan Palach who burned himself to death as a protest against Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.[citation needed] In 2003, Gott sang also the German version "Mein letztes Lied."
1977	Valeria Lynch	"Olvidame" Spanish version performed by the Argentina singer Valeria Lynch published in the album Mujer
1980	Tom Jones	DVD Tom Jones Live in Las Vegas
1982	Shirley Bassey	Album All by Myself
1987	Luis Miguel	Album Soy Como Quiero Ser
1989	Eartha Kitt	Album I'm Still Here ("All by Myself/Beautiful at Forty")
1994	Margaret Urlich	Album The Deepest Blue
1994	Sheryl Crow	Single "Run Baby Run"
1994	Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge	Album Acappella
1995	Jewel	Film Clueless. It was left off the soundtrack and never released.
1995	Babes in Toyland	Album Nemesisters
1995	Jan Werner Danielsen	Album All By Myself
1996	Céline Dion	Album Falling into You
1999	Marcela Holanová	Album Zůstávám dál
2001	Jamie O'Neal	Soundtrack Bridget Jones's Diary
2001	Michael Ball	Album First Love
2002	Richard Clayderman	Album All by Myself (instrumental)
2003	Erika Alcocer Luna	Album La Academia 2. Vol. 11: La Gran Final
2003	Giulia Ottonello	Album Amici - I Ragazzi del 2003
2004	Ryohei Yamamoto	Single "Set Free"
2004	Marco T	Album "Marco T Lirico" (En Concierto- Colombia)
2004	Eddie Murphy	Film Shrek 2
2005	LaToya London	Album Love & Life
2005	Il Divo	Album Ancora
2005	Amici Forever	Album Defined
2005	Myriam Abel	Nouvelle Star (French Pop Idol)
2006	Leona Lewis	The X Factor winner Leona Lewis performed the song in the final.
2007	Lazlo Bane	Album Guilty Pleasures
2007	Ricardo Montaner	Album Las Mejores Canciones de Mundo
2007	John Barrowman	Album Another Side
2008	The Rescues	Film Superhero Movie
2008	Only Men Aloud!	Album Only Men Aloud!
2009	Charice Pempengco	TV Show Glee
2009	Lucie Bílá	TV Show Miss Czech Republic
2009	Monika Absolonová	Zůstávám dál
2010	Helene Fischer	Tour "So wie ich bin" / Album "Live - So wie ich bin"
2010	Sally Chatfield	The X Factor Australia runner-up Sally Chatfield performed the song on the week 6 Blockbuster Hits theme night
2010	Nicola Sedda	Album No Compromise (CDS)
2011	Pia Toscano	TV Show American Idol (season 10)
2011	Charice	TV Show Glee (season 2)
2011	Nur Syafinaz Jebat	TV Show Akademi Fantasia (season 9)
2011	Reece Mastin	The X Factor Australia
2011	Roman Veremeychik	The X Factor (Ukraine)
2012	Christopher Maloney	The X Factor
2012	CeCe Frey	The X Factor USA (season 2)
2012	Antal Tímea	The X-faktor Hungary 3th season

Céline Dion version

"All by Myself"
Single by Céline Dion
from the album Falling into You
Released	October 7, 1996
Format	CD single, cassette single
Recorded	The Record Plant, Compass Point, Capitol Studios
Genre	Pop, soft rock, adult contemporary
Length	5:12 (album version) 4:30 (single version) 3:58 (radio edit 1) 3:52 (radio edit 2)
Label	Columbia, Epic
Writer(s)	Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Producer	David Foster, John Fields
Certification	Gold (U.S.) Silver (France, UK)
Céline Dion singles chronology
"The Power of the Dream" (1996) "All by Myself" (1996) "Les derniers seront les premiers" (1996)

One of the more notable cover versions of "All by Myself" was recorded by Céline 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 and John Fields 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. 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.

Dion recorded also 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. 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 U.S. (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 postive reviews. Entertaiment 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." 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."

Charts and certifications

Peak positions

Chart (1996)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	27
Belgian Flanders Singles Chart	14
Belgian Wallonia Singles Chart	7
Dutch Singles Chart	35
European Singles Chart	15
French Singles Chart	5
German Singles Chart	55
Irish Singles Chart	8
Norwegian Singles Chart	15
Swiss Singles Chart	36
UK Singles Chart	6
Chart (1997)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	38
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	9
Canadian BDS Adult Contemporary Chart	1
Canadian RPM Top Singles	7
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary	1
New Zealand Singles Chart	21
US Billboard Hot 100	4
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	1
US Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks	12
US Billboard Hot Latin Pop Airplay	1
US Billboard Hot Latin Tracks	5
US Billboard Latin Tropical Airplay	4
US Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	33
US Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	7

End of year charts

End of year chart (1997)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	49

Certifications

Country	Certification
France	Silver
United Kingdom	Silver
United States	Gold

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Preceded by "Love Machine" by Miracles	Cash Box Top 100 singles (Eric Carmen version) March 13, 1976	Succeeded by "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" by The Four Seasons
Preceded by "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton	Billboard Adult Contemporary (chart) number-one single (Celine Dion version) April 12,1997 (three weeks)	Succeeded by "For the First Time" by Kenny Loggins
Preceded by "Azúcar Amargo" by Fey	Billboard Latin Pop Airplay number-one single (Celine Dion version) May 10,1997 (two weeks)	Succeeded by "Sólo en Ti" by Enrique Iglesias