Raspberries

The Raspberries came out of Cleveland in 1970 looking like choirboys in matching suits and playing like they'd memorized every British Invasion single ever pressed. The Beatles, the Who, the Hollies, the Small Faces: it's all in there, that mod crunch and those stacked-up harmonies, and the clean-cut look got them screaming teenyboppers and plenty of sniffy scorn from those who thought pop that pretty had to be uncool.

The classic lineup was Eric Carmen singing and switching between guitars, bass and piano, Wally Bryson on guitar, Dave Smalley on guitar and bass, and Jim Bonfanti on drums, with Jimmy Ienner producing all four of their albums. "Go All the Way", from the self-titled Raspberries, is a stone-cold power pop gem: a crunching riff, a swooning chorus and a crash of harmonies. Later came "Let's Pretend", "I Wanna Be with You", "Tonight" and, from Starting Over, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)", a big, sweeping pop rocker.

Michael McBride and Scott McCarl came in for the final stretch, and the band split in 1975 after five years, with Carmen heading off to a solo career. The power pop style they helped kick-start took off after they were gone, and musicians from Ringo Starr and Jack Bruce to Courtney Love have counted themselves fans. The original four got back together in 2004 and went back on the road in 2005.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.