How Raspberries Eventually Became ‘Power Pop Masters’

In a perfect universe, Raspberries would have been huge. The group’s second single “Go All the Way” sold over a million copies in 1972, earning a gold certification. They were on a good path it seemed.

But internal issues would eventually break the Cleveland-bred group apart following 1974’s Starting Over. They had pumped out an impressive four albums in barely three years, releasing a series of additional singles like “I Wanna Be With You,” “Tonight” and “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” that offered a tantalizing example of the band’s songwriting talents. As music fans, we hadn’t heard the words “power pop” yet, but Raspberries were a cornerstone element of helping to define what that meant, marrying lush harmonies with a powerful guitar-driven edge that packed a satisfying musical punch.

They’d made a strong case with their music, yet it would take the world at large a few more decades before they really started to show full appreciation for Raspberries. As it happens, they’d made some famous fans along the way. In the liner notes for 2007’s Raspberries: Live on Sunset Strip, Bruce Springsteen remembered driving to Asbury Park in his pickup truck with a Raspberries cassette lodged in his tape deck. Calling them “the great underrated power pop masters,” he praised their “Beach Boys harmonies” and “crunchy Who guitars.” Running down their best-known singles, he identified “Overnight Sensation” as one that should “go down as one of the great mini rock opera masterpieces of all time.” Paul Stanley, Axl Rose and Tom Petty are among the others who have offered Raspberries praise over the years.

Listen to Raspberries’ ‘Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)’

After a reunion attempt fizzled in the late ’90s, Raspberries, featuring vocalist Eric Carmen, guitarist Wally Bryson, bassist Dave Smalley and drummer Jim Bonfanti, finally were able to reassemble. A proper reunion began in late 2004 with a hometown concert in Cleveland to celebrate the opening of the local House of Blues. Author Ken Sharp (Kiss, Cheap Trick, John Lennon and Yoko Ono) was gobsmacked by the turn of events. Though he’d written a well-received book, 1993’s Overnight Sensation: The Story of Raspberries, he’d had little hope at the time it was published that the group would ever come back together.

READ MORE: Raspberries Albums Ranked

Sharp learned about the reunion when he made a visit to Cleveland to deliver a special hardcover edition of Marathon Man, the subsequent book he’d written about Carmen, to the singer himself. “One of the first things [the vocalist] said was, ‘You know, the band is getting back together,'” he says on the UCR Podcast. It was a moment that stunned both him and his co-author Bernie Hogya. “I’m pretty sure it was me who said, ‘What band?’ and that’s when he told us Raspberries had an offer [for a reunion]. Bernie and I were both walking on a cloud.”

The subsequent shows that followed quickly proved it had been worth the wait. The four members were joined on stage by additional players — including future Taylor Swift guitarist Paul Sidoti, a fellow Cleveland local. The added musicians, cheekily named “The Overdubs,” gave Raspberries all of the musical tools they needed to accurately reproduce the intricate and stacked arrangements of their original recordings. “A lot of reunions that happen, you kind of have to trick your ears a little bit,” he explains. “Oh, it’s pretty good. [But] with Raspberries, they overdelivered.”

2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy helped to bring the music of Raspberries to new audiences, with “Go All the Way” being one of the songs prominently featured in the movie and on the accompanying soundtrack alongside David Bowie, the Jackson 5, 10cc, the Runaways and others. It was a moment that delivered the group their first platinum album at long last. “Guardians of the Galaxy is a jumping off point for some of the newer generation,” he says. “It’s an amazing, amazing thing that just proves that what they did has a timeless quality.”

READ MORE: Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack Features David Bowie, Raspberries

Sharp has finally made a new edition of his book available. Overnight Sensation has been long sold out and unavailable for more than three decades. Though he planned initially just to do a straight reprint, he ended up having to recreate the book from scratch after it was discovered that the original publisher had gone out of business. Working with designer Jim Horan once again, the pair expanded the book from its initial 350 pages to over 820 pages. Featuring new and expanded interviews with Raspberries and connected figures like producer Jimmy Ienner, it also includes essays from their colleagues, road crew, friends, family and band insiders. Stuffed full of rare photos, concert reviews and other ephemera, Overnight Sensation tells the Raspberries story in a lovingly comprehensive fashion. Fans can order the massive tome from Sharp directly.

So where does one begin with Raspberries once you get hooked in by the singles? For Sharp, it’s a simple answer: 1973’s Side 3. “It’s my favorite of the albums. I think Jim [Bonfanti] said this to me, possibly in the book, that he kind of wishes it was the first album,” the author explains. “I love all four records. They all have their own individual character — and I could have leaned towards Starting Over too, but I would say that Side 3 really captured, I think, what they wanted to be from the start and maybe how they sounded live. I would put up so many of these songs, ‘Tonight,’ ‘Next to See Me,’ [with] the most incredible pop songs [by other artists]. I don’t want anyone to get angry with me, but I put [those songs] on the level of ‘Go All the Way,’ with being so incredible. I would want people to start there and then investigate the other records.”

Listen to Raspberries’ ‘Tonight’

“They haven’t gotten the respect they deserve, in my opinion,” Springsteen adds in the book. With all of the power pop music you hear out there, what about the Raspberries?” The band, he says, “had at least one full album of stone cold classics.” He punctuates his thoughts with one final thing. “At the time, [they were] considered not hip, due to the fact that they had hit after hit after hit after hit, but damn, they were good.”