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Frampton Comes Alive!

Frampton Comes Alive! is the first double live album by English musician and songwriter Peter Frampton, released in 1976 by A&M Records. Frampton Comes Alive! is one of the best-selling live albums of all time. "Show Me the Way", "Baby, I Love Your Way", and "Do You Feel Like We Do" were released as singles; all three reached the top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and frequently receive airplay on classic rock radio stations. Following four studio albums with no success and sales, Frampton Comes Alive! was a breakthrough for Frampton.

Frampton Comes Alive!

6 January 1976 (1976-01-06)

13 June 1975
14 June 1975
24 August 1975
22 November 1975

78:06 (original album)
98:03 (2001 expanded and remastered edition)

Peter Frampton

Released on 6 January 1976, Frampton Comes Alive! debuted on the charts at #191. It reached number one on the Billboard 200 the week ending 10 April 1976, spending a total of 10 non-consecutive weeks in the top spot through October. It was the best-selling album of 1976 and has sold over 8 million copies in the United States.[2]


Frampton Comes Alive! was voted "Album of the Year" in a 1976 Rolling Stone readers' poll. It stayed on the chart for 97 weeks and was still No. 14 on Billboard's 1977 year-end album chart. It was ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time" list.[3] Readers of Rolling Stone ranked it No. 3 in a 2012 poll of all-time favourite live albums.[4]


In 2020, Frampton Comes Alive! was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]

Background and recording[edit]

The album was recorded between June and November 1975, primarily at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco as well as Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael, California, Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, and a concert on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus in Plattsburgh, New York. The Winterland songs were recorded on a 24-track master recorder. Other concerts were captured on a 16-track recorder. Recordings from four shows were used for the original album. Master tapes were recorded at 15 inches per second using professional Dolby "A" noise reduction.[6]


The live album had been intended to be a single LP disc, but at the suggestion of A&M Records additional shows were recorded and the album expanded to two LPs for release. On the special features for the "Live in Detroit" concert DVD, Frampton commented that some difficulty was encountered in the mixing after the microphone cable to the bass drum microphone was inadvertently pulled, accidentally causing the microphone to face at a 90-degree angle from the drumhead. During the concerts, Frampton principally used a distinctive modified black 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar (with three Humbucker pick-ups as opposed to the usual P90 and AlNiCo Staple pickups).[7] On In the Studio with Redbeard, Frampton said, "The album is mostly live except for the first verse of 'Something's Happening', the electric rhythm guitar on 'Show Me the Way' (the talk-box came out but the engineer forgot to move the mic) and the intro piano on 'I Wanna Go to the Sun' were fixed in the studio but the rest was all live (all the guitar solos, acoustic guitars, electric keyboards, drums, bass guitar and rest of vocals)".[8]

Release[edit]

The double album was released in the US with a reduced list price of $7.98, only $1.00 more than the standard $6.98 of most single-disc albums in 1976. The album was pressed in "automatic sequence", with sides one and four on one record, followed by sides two and three on the other. This arrangement was intended to make it easier to listen through the whole album in sequence on automatic record changers.


Three hit singles were released from the album: "Baby, I Love Your Way", "Do You Feel Like We Do" and "Show Me the Way". The talk box guitar effect became strongly associated with Frampton when it was heard on the latter two singles. The "Do You Feel Like We Do" single version was edited to 7:19 from the 14:15 album version. But even at just over seven minutes, it is about twice the length of the average hit single and one of the longest ever to make the top 40 (longer even than The Beatles' "Hey Jude" which ran 7:11). The B-side of "Do You Feel Like We Do", the acoustic instrumental "Penny for Your Thoughts", was the shortest song on Frampton Comes Alive at just 1:23.


In January 2001, a 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the album was released, containing four additional tracks that were not included on the original version (although one of these was recorded in a radio studio as part of a broadcast, and does not form part of the main concert programme). The track sequence is also significantly different, to more accurately reflect the set list used in the original concerts. Frampton produced the completely remixed and extended album and played an impromptu live performance with the original band from the album at Tower Records in Los Angeles to help promote the release.

– lead vocals, lead guitar, talk box on "Do You Feel Like We Do" and "Show Me The Way"

Peter Frampton

– rhythm guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, vocals

Bob Mayo

– bass, vocals

Stanley Sheldon

– drums, percussion

John Siomos