Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
Featured album from our weekly newsletter #02-2024 (January 2024)
Frampton Comes Alive! Is the first live album by British guitarist singer songwriter Peter Frampton, originally released in January 1976 via A&M Records.
After four studio albums and one live album with Humble Pie, Frampton left the band and went solo in 1971 His debut solo album was Wind Of Change (1972), with guest artists Ringo Starr and Billy Preston. This album was followed by Frampton's Camel (1973), which featured Frampton working within a group project. In 1974, Frampton released Somethin's Happening, and toured extensively to support his solo career. In 1975, the self titled Frampton album was released, which became a huge success in the US (reaching #32 in the US charts) but commercially ignored in the UK.
The following year in 1976 a double live album Frampton Comes Alive! was released. The album was recorded in summer and fall of 1975, primarily at Winterland in San Francisco and the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, as well as a concert on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus in Plattsburgh, New York.
Frampton had a new line-up that recorded the live material on this album, with Americans Bob Mayo (keyboards, rhythm guitar), Stanley Sheldon (bass) and John Siomos (drums) forming the backing band.
Like Jeff Beck, Frampton perfected the voice tube effect (talk box) and used this gimmick to great effect on the track “Show Me The Way”, which peaked at #6 on the US Singles chart.
The most recognisable songs from the album are "Show Me the Way", "Baby, I Love Your Way", and "Do You Feel Like We Do", all of which continue to receive ample airplay on classic rock radio stations to this day. All the songs on this live album appeared on his first four solo albums released between 1972 and 1975.
The album closes with an extended live version of “Do You Feel Like We Do”, which makes use of the talk box and an extended guitar solo. An edited version of this track was released as the third single from the live album in September 1976, which reached #10 on the US Billboard 100 singles chart.
Frampton Comes Alive! scaled the US charts and stayed on top for a total of 10 weeks, in four visits during a record-breaking two year stay. The album also broke through in the UK, reaching #6 on the UK charts. The record became the biggest selling live album in history and to date has sold more than 15 million copies. In the US it became the biggest selling album of 1976, selling over 8 million copies in that year alone.
Frampton Comes Alive! was voted "Album Of The Year" in the 1976 Rolling Stone readers poll, and is one of those classic live albums released in the 1970s that stands the test of time.