Frampton Comes Alive!

Frampton Comes Alive!
Live album by Peter Frampton
Released	January 6, 1976 (U.S.) February 13, 1976 (UK)
Recorded	Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA, June 13, 1975 Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, June 14, 1975 Long Island Arena, Commack, NY, August 24, 1975 SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, November 22, 1975
Genre	Rock
Length	78:06
Label	A&M
Producer	Peter Frampton
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (B-) link Rolling Stone link
Peter Frampton chronology
Frampton (1975) Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) I'm in You (1977)

Frampton Comes Alive! is a double live album by Peter Frampton released in 1976, and one of the best-selling live albums in the United States. Following four solo albums with little commercial success, Frampton Comes Alive! was a breakthrough for the artist.

Released on January 6, 1976, it debuted on the charts at 191. The album reached number one on the Billboard 200 the week ending April 10, 1976, and was in the top spot for a total of 10 weeks. It was the best-selling album of 1976, selling over 6 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling live albums to date. Frampton Comes Alive! was voted "Album of the year" in the 1976 Rolling Stone readers poll. It stayed on the chart for 97 weeks and was still #14 on Billboard's 1977 year-end album chart. It remains the second best selling live album in the U.S. behind Garth Brooks' 1998 album Double Live.^[1][2][3][4]

The most recognizable songs from the album are "Show Me the Way", "Baby, I Love Your Way", and "Do You Feel Like We Do", all of which were released as singles, and continue to receive much airplay on classic rock radio stations.

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. The track sequence is also slightly different. 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.

Background and recording

The album was recorded in 1975, primarily at Winterland in San Francisco, California and the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. The album was recorded by a mobile recording studio on a 1-inch 8-track master tape recorder. Modern studios at that time typically utilized 2-inch 16 or 24 track recorders. The relatively primitive technology kept production costs low. Frampton played a glossy black Gibson Les Paul electric guitar on the album.^[5] Frampton's Les Paul "Black Beauty" guitar was fitted with three humbucking pickups (as opposed to the usual two pickups found on most Gibson Les Pauls). This model has since been renamed the "Frampton".

On the DVD special features for "Live in Detroit", Frampton commented that some difficulty was encountered in the mixing after the cord to the bass drum mic got pulled, accidentally, causing the mic to face at a 90-degree angle from the drum head.

The double album was released in the U.S. with a list price of $7.98, only $1.00 more than the standard $6.98 of most single-disc albums in 1976.

Track listing

All songs written by Peter Frampton except as noted.

Side one

1. "Something's Happening" – 5:41
2. "Doobie Wah" (Frampton, John Headley-Down, Rick Wills) – 5:28
3. "Show Me the Way" – 4:42
4. "It's a Plain Shame" – 4:21

Side two

1. "All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side)" – 3:27
2. "Wind of Change" – 2:47
3. "Baby, I Love Your Way" – 4:43
4. "I Wanna Go to the Sun" – 7:02

Side three

1. "Penny for Your Thoughts" – 1:23
2. "(I'll Give You) Money" – 5:39
3. "Shine On" – 3:35
4. "Jumping Jack Flash" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 7:45

Side four

1. "Lines on My Face" – 7:06
2. "Do You Feel Like We Do?" (Frampton, Mick Gallagher, John Siomos, Rick Wills) – 14:15

25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Disc one

1. "Introduction/Something's Happening" – 5:56
   • Originally titled "Baby (Somethin's Happening)" on Frampton's 1974 album Somethin's Happening
2. "Doobie Wah" (Frampton, Rick Wills, John Headley-Down) – 5:43
3. "Lines on My Face" – 6:59
4. "Show Me the Way" – 4:32
5. "It's a Plain Shame" – 4:03
6. "Wind of Change" – 2:57
7. "Just the Time of Year" – 4:21
   • Available only on the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
8. "Penny for Your Thoughts" – 1:34
9. "All I Want to Be (Is By Your Side)" – 3:08
10. "Baby, I Love Your Way" – 4:41
11. "I Want to Go to the Sun" – 7:15

Disc two

1. "Nowhere's Too Far (For My Baby)" – 4:49
2. "(I'll Give You) Money" – 5:46
3. "Do You Feel Like We Do" (Frampton, Mick Gallagher, John Siomos, Wills) – 13:46
   • SUNY-Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, November 22, 1975
4. "Shine On" – 3:29
5. "White Sugar" – 4:43
6. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 7:40
7. "Day's Dawning/Closing" – 3:34

Personnel

• Peter Frampton – guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, talk box, vocals
• Bob Mayo – guitars, keyboards, Hammond organ, synthesizer, piano, Fender Rhodes, vocals
• Stanley Sheldon – bass guitar, vocals
• Alan Spenner - bass on "Show Me the Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do"
• John Siomos – drums, percussion

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

In popular culture

In Wayne's World 2, Wayne Campbell alludes to the album's popularity by saying, "Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide."

Jam band Phish referenced the record with their live album Hampton Comes Alive, recorded at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.

In the cold open to the Malcolm in the Middle episode Jury Duty, Hal discovers one of his figurines and his copy of Frampton Comes Alive both broken and buried in the backyard, which leads to a full-on excavation of what his sons broke and hid from him.

In Arrested Development, G.O.B. releases a duet album recorded with his puppet, Franklin, entitled "Franklin Comes Alive".

In the Stewie Loves Lois episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin referenced the record; "You know what else was a Monster? Frampton Comes Alive '76. Is there anyone you knew that didn't have that album? Didn't think so."

The song "Third Track Main Camera Four Minutes" from British band, Half Man Half Biscuit's 2000 album, "Trouble Over Bridgwater" contains the lyric "If ever an album title was in dire need of an exclamation mark, it surely had to be Frampton Comes Alive!"

References

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