Frampton Comes Alive! • Peter Frampton

Peter Frampton. This double live album, Frampton Comes Alive! is a breakthrough record for Peter Frampton, after four solo albums with little commercial success. A great testimony to perseverance. Instead of “the third time’s a charm,” maybe the fifth time is the one. It sure was for Frampton, who if you don’t know him, is a popular English rocker, singer, songwriter, and producer (at least he was crazy popular in the 70s and 80s). But he’s still around doing his thing to this day.

This record was the best-selling album of 1976, selling over 8 million copies in the US alone, and becoming the best-selling live album ever, with estimated sales of 11 million. Overall Peter Frampton has sold more than 16 million records so far.

He was born in Beckenham, England, a district of greater London. He first became interested in music when he was seven years old. He found his grandmother's banjolele (a cross between a banjo and a ukulele) in the attic one day, and taught himself to play. Something of a musical prodigy, he taught himself guitar at age 7, and then studied piano. Within the next few years, he mastered complex jazz, blues and rock riffs. His influences included Cliff Richard, The Beatles, and American rockers Buddy Holly, the Ventures, and Jimi Hendrix.

Frampton is best known for such hits as "Breaking All the Rules,” “Show Me the Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way,” and “l’m in You," to name a few. These songs remain basic staples for airplay on classic rock radio to the current day. Three of the above songs, from Frampton Comes Alive! reached the Top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself debuted on the charts at 191. It climbed all the way to # 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart by April 1976, where it stayed for a full 10 weeks.

It was voted "Album Of The Year" in the 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.

Well, Peter Frampton became one of the huge heartthrob/ teen idol rockers of the classic rock era, packing out whole stadiums full of screaming, singing fans. In 1976, both Billboard and Rolling Stone magazines named him Artist of the Year.

So now, pretend you’re a 70s child and get in touch with your inner post-modern, post-hippie, almost post-disco rockstar groupie self. Or maybe just watch Almost Famous again. Then dive into some great 70s rock/pop with one of the big names of the era.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Peter Frampton. Here are some classic tracks: