Frampton Comes Alive!
is a
double live album
by the English
musician and songwriter
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 15
on the
US Billboard
Hot 100,
and frequently
receive airplay
on classic rock
radio stations.
Released on
January,15th 1976,
Frampton Comes Alive!
debuted on the charts
at No. 191.
It reached No. 1
on the
Billboard 200
the week ending
April,10th 1976,
spending 10
non-consecutive weeks
in the top spot
through October.
It was the
best-selling album
of 1976
and has
sold over
8,000,000 copies
in the United States.
Frampton Comes Alive!
was voted
"Album of the Year"
in a 1976
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
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.
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,
Peter 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).
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
3 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.
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