Frampton Comes Alive! (1976)

Frampton Comes Alive! is a double live album by the English musician and songwriter Peter Frampton, released in 1976 by A&M Records. Following four studio albums with little success and sales, Frampton Comes Alive! was a breakthrough for Frampton and is one of the best-selling live albums ever. "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 10 in Canada and the top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and frequently receive airplay on classic rock radio stations.

Released on 15 January 1976, Frampton Comes Alive! debuted on the charts at No. 191. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 the week ending 10 April 1976, spending 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.

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. Readers of Rolling Stone ranked it No. 3 in a 2012 poll of all-time favourite live albums.

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

Background and recording

The album Frampton Comes Alive! 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 recorder. Other concerts were captured on 16-track recorders. 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.

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 difficulties were encountered in mixing after the cable to the bass drum microphone was inadvertently pulled, 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). On the radio program 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)".

Release

The double album was released in the U.S. at a reduced list price of $7.98, only $1.00 more than the standard $6.98 of most single-disc albums in 1976. It was pressed in "automatic sequence", with sides one and four on one record and sides two and three on the other. This arrangement facilitated sequential listening on automatic record changers.

The album produced three hit singles: "Baby, I Love Your Way", "Do You Feel Like We Do", and "Show Me the Way". The talk box guitar effect became closely associated with Frampton due to its use in the latter two singles. The single version of "Do You Feel Like We Do" was edited to 7:19 from the original 14:15 album version, making it one of the longest singles to reach the top 40, surpassing The Beatles' "Hey Jude" at 7:11. The B-side of "Do You Feel Like We Do", the acoustic instrumental "Penny for Your Thoughts", was the shortest track on Frampton Comes Alive, at 1:23.

In January 2001, a 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the album was released. It featured four additional tracks not present in the original version, one recorded in a radio studio and not part of the main concert program. The track sequence was revised to more accurately reflect the original concert set list. Frampton produced the remixed and extended album and performed live with the original band at Tower Records in Los Angeles to promote the release.

Personnel

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

• Bob Mayo – rhythm guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, vocals
• Stanley Sheldon – bass, vocals
• John Siomos – drums, percussion

Production

• Audio engineer: Chris Kimsey Engineer Live Recording and Original Mixer 1976
• Audio engineer: Ray Thompson
• Photography: Mike Zagaris
• Mastering: Mike Reese at The Mastering Lab
• Remastering: Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles
• Remastering: Roger Wake at Bourbery-Wake

Remastering (25th Anniversary Edition): Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME, October 2000