Raspberries Tribute Album ‘Play On’ Gives 1970s Power-Pop Band Its Due

When the Raspberries came out of the gate as a thirsty band from Cleveland in the early 1970s, they were scrappy underdogs — notwithstanding the smooth polish of some of their records, their perfect shag haircuts and (at first) matching suits. Now, 50 years after their breakup, the Raspberries still count as scrappy underdogs, at least in the eyes of the cultists who keep the band’s legend alive. The Eric Carmen-fronted band is being celebrated with “Play On: A Raspberries Tribute” a two-CD salute that sports covers of 37 of their songs, i.e., nearly their entire 1970s catalog.

Those who already revere the Raspberries as high priests of the religion of power pop will be in heaven, and the group could pick up some late converts along the way, or at least a better understanding of how hard the band actually rocked in-between churning some of the most indelible pop hooks of the era. There will be no harm and no foul if those who only know the Raspberries from “Go All the Way” — their biggest hit, which reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 in 1972 — should happen to explore the rest of their material through these covers, then go back all the way to the still fresh-sounding originals.

The set includes tracks from Rick Springfield, the Lemon Twigs, Foreigner’s Lou Gramm, Vicki and Debbie Peterson of the Bangles, Marshall Crenshaw, the Runaways’ Cherie Currie, Darian Sahanaja of Brian Wilson’s band, John Waite and many others. It’s co-produced by the man who is perhaps the world’s biggest Raspberries enthusiast, Ken Sharp, who recently published an 820-page expansion of his vital source book, “Overnight Sensation The Story of Raspberries,” on top of working on this musical salute for three years with partner Fernando Perdomo.

Even among his fellow aficionados of so-called power pop, Sharp is not sure that the Raspberries are always put at the top of the heap, as they should be.

“I really think that Raspberries in many ways are underrated,” Sharp says. “You know, people that love power pop may have other choices, but for me it’s Raspberries followed pretty closely by Badfinger. I get that with Big Star, it was darker and it was edgier and it was kind of like that secret society many, many years later. And I absolutely adore their music, but I think that Raspberries are the quintessential power pop band. Big Star has received more than enough accolades. Step aside, guys, and let some of that rain on the Raspberries, because they’re incredibly deserving.”

He adds, “Everything about the Raspberries hits hits my sweet spot, whether it’s the Beatles or the Beach Boys or the Who or the Left Bank or the Small Faces and so many other bands that are probably part of Eric, Wally (Bryson), Dave (Smalley), and Jim (Bonfanti)’s —and later, Scott (McCarl) and Michael (McBride)’s — influences. It was just the most picture-perfect amalgamation of everything I love about music in one band.”

Carmen — who was one of several singer-songwriters in the different iterations of the band, albeit by far the most prominent — died in March 2024. He lent his imprimatur to what Sharp was working on for quite some time prior to his death, offering notes of approval on different tracks as the producer sent them over. His sole musical contribution to the album was sending over a new recording of his “one-two-three-four!” count-in to the rocker “Tonight,” since Lou Gramm forgot to include that part when he cut the tune, and Sharp thought it would make for a fun cameo. But his presence looms large, as does that of some of the other members who participated even more directly.

“While the project started out, I was letting the band members know and I was keeping in touch, especially with Eric, because I would have questions at times about ‘What was this part?’ Because when you listen to those records, they’re pretty dense and there’s a lot going on,” Sharp says, “and it’s kind of a lo-fi, AM radio, compressed sound. I mean, there’s a sax part on the bridge of ‘I Wanna Be With You’ [a No. 16 hit in 1972] that is kind of buried, and I reached out to Eric and said, ‘What exactly is being played, so we can get the sax player to do that?’ He would help with that. Wally (Bryson) or Dave (Smalley, the other two original frontmen), they were writing on guitar, but Eric wrote most of his on piano, so transposing into guitar was kind of tricky. You can play them kind of the dum-dum way, but if you want to play it the right way, if it was an Eric song, I had that incredible good fortune to be able to reach out to him about it.”

Original drummer Jim Bonfanti actually played on several tracks on the tribute. “Jim was really excited about the record,” Sharp says. ” And with people like Vicki and Debbie Peterson from the Bangles or Lou Graham or John Waite, those artists wanted us to have a track to provide. I thought, what would be better than to have the original drummer kick ass on these tracks? And that was Jim. And then Jim hadn’t played on the Raspberries’ final album, ‘Starting Over’ [at which point he had left the group]. But Raspberries did ‘I Don’t Know What I Want’ from that album in their set when they reunited for reunion shows in the 2000s, and it was just incendiary with Jim. So he got a real kick out of playing drums on a song here that he never played on the studio version.”

Sharp does the math and points out that 36 of the Raspberries’ 40 released tracks are covered here — “there were only a few that we weren’t able to cast” — and the number goes up to 37 with the inclusion of “Please Let Me Come Back Home,” ‘Please Let Me Come Back Home,” one of the demos the band did prior to their first album that caught the attention of their producer-to-be, Jimmy Ienner.

Sharp runs down some of the more boldface-name contributions. “What was most important to me was to cast it as best as possible and not rush through it,” he says. “Rick Springfield was a holy grail, and I reached out to Rick first when we decided to start working on the project; he was the one that was my holy grail to do ‘Go All the Way.’ Had this song been included on ‘Working Class Dog’ as the followup to ‘Jessie’s Girl,’ I believe he would’ve had a No. 1 hit with it.”

Of a younger act with hard-rocking old souls that is widely appreciated cross-generationally, he says: “Of course, the Lemon Twigs nail the assignment. What was funny is, initially I reached out to them early in the process and they weren’t really hip to the Raspberries; they were kind of hip to Big Star and things like that. And I think it paid off for my project to be in the works for a few years, because they finally caught up to Raspberries and they were asking, ‘How can we get a copy of your book?’ And they reached out and said, ‘Hey, we’re in a quandary. We don’t know what to do. We love “Let’s Pretend” and we love “Play On.”’ I’m like, ‘Problem solved — do them both. So Brian sang ‘Let’s Pretend’ and Michael sang ‘Play On.’”

The Raspberries took about 30 years to reunite after their initial breakup, and coincidentally, so did one of the acts that got back together to contribute a track here. “The Hudson Brothers keep saying they’re gonna reunite and do some shows, and I was reaching out to Mark (Hudson) for many months to say, ‘Hey, let’s do a track.’ Near the end of the project, Mark got in touch with me and agreed to participate with his brothers, and they do ‘All Through the Night,’ in a really incredible, high-energy version that kind of sounds like Slade. It’s their first track in over 30 years.”

On the fresh-faced side, the collection includes the young singer Tori Holub, who stole a lot of hearts as the least-known singer on the recent Burt Bacharach tribute tour, partly because she can sound like a dead ringer for Karen Carpenter, though that’s not all she can pull off. “I heard in my mind Karen Carpenter singing the beautiful melody of ‘Starting Over,’” Sharp explains. “With Eric, a lot of times I would send the recording to him if an artist did one of his songs, just to get his opinion. And the last message I have from Eric is him responding to the version of ‘Starting Over’ by Tori. He really loved the version, loved her voice, and kindly complimented me about the music, saying, ‘It doesn’t sound like Raspberries, nor should it.’ So I think he liked that it was a little bit out of the box. Tori’s version is just absolutely stunning.”

(There was a rare lyric change in that one. “I know that Tori was uncomfortable singing the word fuck in the first line of ‘Starting Over’ — ‘Used to be so fucking optimistic.’ I think the reason Eric put that in there was just to put across the desperation he was feeling, since that song was such a deeply personal song to him. Tori said, ‘Hey, is it okay if I change that up, and I said, ‘That’s fine.’” Lou Gramm also leaves out the “Won’t you let me sleep with you, baby” part of “Tonight”; Sharp says that one wasn’t discussed. If he omitted it because it sounds too salacious in 2025, the producer agrees that could count as slightly ironic for the fellow who sang “Hot Blooded.”

But Currie had no problem with the prospect of a threesome coming up in “Hands on You.” “They were horn dogs!” Sharp says, of the Raspberries’ very, very randy side. “That one I was a little worried about placing with anyone because of some of, you know, shall we say the risque lyrics, but, you know, it was the ’70s.”

Of the musical side of “Hands on You” representing a departure, Sharp says, “Listen to the original from ‘Starting Over, which is this real jaunty, ‘Beach Boys Party’ acoustic guitar thing with lots of laughing and falling and saying funny things. We tried to give it a glam-rock sheen and create these really cool bridges; the original had these incredible, beautiful, melancholy chord constructions that deserved a more produced and thought-out version.” As unfaithful arrangements go, though, Sharp says “‘I Can Hardly Believe You’re Mine’ (sung by John Powhida) was reshaped as Eno meets the Stylistics meets Prince. I would say that’s the greatest departure, absolutely.”

If there is anyone Sharp has championed as much as the Raspberries, it’s Todd Rundgren and his associated projects, “and it was a thrill to get half of my beloved Utopia on this record, with Kasim Sulton, and I thought ‘With You in My Life’ would be a really cool one for Willie to sing since he kind of has that vaudeville-esque type of voice.” (For anyone interested in Rundgren connections, Sharp says he picked the relatively unknown Adelaide Estep to sing the Raspberries’ classic “I Saw the Light” on this album because he came across her on YouTube singing… Todd Rundgren’s completely unrelated hit also called “I Saw the Light.”)

There are plenty of other contributors to the set Sharp is eager to point out, including, on the newcomers’ side, Olivia Rubini, who was on “The Voice” this year, and also some veterans he was thrilled to get, like Meat Loaf veteran Karla DeVito, who nails the album’s most epic track, “I Can Remember,” which Sharp considers to be Carmen’s poppy version of prog-rock. There’s a similar expansiveness to “On the Beach,” recorded by Darian Sahanaja, whose former band the Wondermints — trivia question and answer here — were once managed by no less than Eric Carmen.

Sharp wanted to make sure that all the members who sang lead and contributed songs were being saluted as well as the guy who went on to the more famous solo career. “As much as Eric is the center point in terms of being the writer that had the hits, I really think that this record also spotlights the collective, incredible songwriting, talent and diversity with Wally. And with Dave coming from a much more country-rock place, he could have been a member of the Eagles if they needed to replace Randy Meisner earlier. Then you had Scott McCarl (who joined before the final album, “Overnight Sensation”), who was the John to Eric’s Paul. So it’s a collective celebration of all their talents.”

Sharp can’t say enough about all six members of the Raspberries, but he thinks the band’s drumming was been especially underrated. “Obviously you had two incredible drummers. Jim to me was a bit more of a controlled Keith Moon. And then Michael McBride was just a monster on the drums and probably more of an out-of-control heavy hitter. There was a Rhino collection called ‘Let There be Drums’ that Max Weinberg curated, and one of the songs that he picked as being an incredible drum performance was ‘Overnight Sensation.’ I remember calling and telling Michael, who was very humble, but I could tell was very pleased to get that call-out.”

The Raspberries love extended across the E Street Band. Although he was not able to procure a track from the Boss for the album, “Springsteen was a huge fan of the band and would talk about how they were a huge influence on him when he was working on ‘The River.’ He would listen to the ‘Raspberries Greatest’ cassette in his car — you know, uh, he was listening to Woody Guthrie and the Raspberries! And Springsteen wrote the liner notes for (their reunion live album), and that doesn’t happen much.”

There’s an interesting intersection of influence and lineage represented in history and on the album for KISS fans. “Paul Stanley saw them at Carnegie Hall in ’73. The song that would always open KISS shows back in the day is a song called ‘Deuce,’” says Sharp, who has co-written two authorized KISS books, “and the beginning of that song, Paul told me, was him trying to do something that was similar to the intro to ‘go all the way.’Go All the Way.’ And then actually the Raspberries Mach II lineup opened for KISS in 1974.” Now, “Paul’s son, Evan Stanley, is on the Raspberries tribute, and I’m sure his dad turned him onto the band, He does ‘Last Dance,’ by Wally, in an ironically very plaintive, very lonesome, very intimate way, which to me recalls Big Star.”

Another rock scion is on the album: Robin Taylor Zander, son of Cheap Trick’s singer and now a member of the band, sings “Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye.” “He is the splitting image of his dad as a vocalist, with a bit of a higher voice. But he did that song solo, played all the instruments, and delivered an absolutely beautiful, very Lennon-esque track.”

Sharp acknowledges that Raspberrries (or is it “the Raspberries”? No one ever seems sure, and even Sharp uses the terms interchangeably) have not been completely swept under the carpet. “The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ soundtrack had ‘Go All the Way’ on it, and it’s actually the only platinum record the band was ever awarded,” though earlier they got a gold record for the original hit. Anyway, all’s well that rests in power (pop).

“Play On: A Raspberries Tribute” can be ordered here. The full track list:

DISC ONE

DISC TWO