I'll say it up front, I detest this song. I love Eric Carmen with The Raspberries, but this song was overblown, over-dramatic, and overdone.

However, I went to an oldies show last weekend and saw Little Anthony & The Imperials open with this song.....and he sang the sh^t out of it.....so I thought I'd make it this week's song. It's only too bad they only perform it live, so I couldn't make it one of the choices....(there has to be a recorded version).

As an aside, if Little Anthony & The Imperials are doing a concert in your area, they're great....definitely still worth seeing.....all original members, and Little Anthony can still belt out tunes at his ripe old age of 39 (at least that's what he kept saying his age was ).

Have to pick Eric Carmen, but you know, all of his recordings are overblown, over-dramatic and overdone. That's part of his charm.

Wow, I had no idea there had been so many cover versions. I'm going to abstain from voting this time around as I'm only familiar with the Eric Carmen version ... or should I say over familiar, as my wife is a big Carmen fan and has his "Best Of" CD on heavy rotation in the car.

Clearly, smart ladies like Eric Carmen!

I don't remember the song, & I do have Ms Crow's entire catalog. I guess since i must have heard her's & I've never heard the others I should probably vote that way!

Oh, I'm sure you've heard it.....even it you don't remember the title. It was a huge hit. Even if you somehow missed not hearing it on the radio in the 70's, you likely heard that over-dramatic French-Canadian woman's version in your dentist's office waiting for a cavity to be filled (I did anyway)

I never heard Sheryl Crow's version, but according to Wikipedia, it was only on a CD single.

I guess there is a Little Anthony & The Imperials recording......the song doesn't get any better than this.

Eric Carmen. That was easy.

Rachmaninoff

(referring, of course, to the well-known fact that Carmen "lifted" the melody from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2)