Peter Frampton Fame and Success

What are your thoughts or the conventional wisdom back then on Peter Frampton's great fame and success in the 70's and current status? Frampton Comes Alive was huge. Is it because he was a good looking guy and the girls went nuts? A great guitarist that played his way to the top? Live was just better than studio? A promoter's success story? Finally caught a break? Just lucky, etc....?

For me, I had never noticed him before, but Frampton Comes Alive just sounded great. The songs just seemed to breathe. My wife liked the songs, and thought he was cute then and still cute now. We both still love to listen to his music, new and old.

 

Frampton Comes Alive had great songs that played better live than studio. No album gets big like that without tremendous songs. Frampton was great looking, which never hurts. He was also obviously a good guy, which also never hurts. He had something unique at the time, that wah-wah talking mouthpiece or whatever it's called. The combination made him huge for awhile. Note that he never had major success like that again, but one monster is enough to fuel a career. Finally, a great, great guitar player.

 

Love telling this :

From another thread :

A family friend that works at a high end grocer here, had the longest, nicest conversation with a customer recently. When it ended, her coworker asked her if she realized who that was ? She didn't. It was Peter Frampton.
Love this town.

Anyway, all the stars just lined up for him in 1976.

 

His stint in Humble Pie got him some notice, and 'Frampton Comes Alive' was a rocket.

 

Another great Frampton story...

My wife's father dated Frampton's real estate agent in Westchester, NY, where he owned a house. He put it up for sale. One day she was showing it, told the prospective buyers, who were in another room, to come check out the bedroom. She opened a closet before they got there and Frampton was in there, frantically waving her off to leave. She'd entered the house with a key and hadn't known he was home. She told the people she got an emergency call of some sort and they left.

 

I saw him live about two months ago here in Prescott. Man what a show he was wonderful. His songs are ageless and with great guitar playing sound killer. He is also very personable and funny as hell.

 

Frampton Comes Alive is when I quit enjoying his music. It was way overplayed on radio. I liked his music around 1973-74 and saw him live at the Cleveland Agora at least once.

 

I really like his first 4 solo albums (Frampton especially). But, the live album had an infectious, joyous vibe to it...whether it was actually real or not. That audience was having a blast, and it came across in the performance and the recording.

 

I'm not a Frampton fan, but two of his albums have followed me through various formats. I just love Breaking All the Rules, and I'm in You. I think they're solid little rock/pop records. Nothing else has grabbed me, and in truth I've totally lost touch with the guy - I have no idea what he's done in the last 20 years.

Still, those two albums - especially Breaking All the Rules - are a real pleasure.

 

I was in high school when 'Frampton Comes Alive' hit the scene. I remember it was like one day all the girls at school were wearing Elton John T-Shirts, and the next day they were wearing 'Frampton Comes Alive' T-Shirts...literally. That lasted for awhile, but then his album 'I'm In You' came out, and that was the end of that.

I liked the live version of 'Baby I Love Your Way', but that was about it.

 

The talk box. The crowd noise cranked up. Great marketing. That's not to say it isn't a good album. It's just funny that most people have never heard the studio albums that came before or after. I remember getting on my bicycle to go buy I'm In You immediately after seeing him perform Signed, Sealed, Delivered on the Mike Douglas show. That's the only studio album I've ever heard.

 

Most of the songs I prefer live except "Show Me the Way".

 

"Do You Feel Like We Do" even on the SINGLE has to stand as one of the longest lasting hit records in America till the 80s when we got 8-10 minute singles! DYFLWD's single length is about 7:20---and the LP is nearly twice as long, spare change:14:20. (reminiscent of the Temptations's 1972 7:00 "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" edited from the 12:00 track).

 

I've seen Frampton's success explained from a music industry perspective in some video or whatever I watched awhile ago. Basically, he hit at a time when the young adult suburban record buying public was beginning to peak in terms of numbers, and when the record making industry (much of which was owned by oil companies that supplied the petroleum product that vinyl was made from, and saw the potential for massive profits) was poised and ready to move as much vinyl as could be bought by those young adults. Of course he also had talent and a smart management who knew how to showcase him at his best via Frampton Comes Alive!, but the rest of it was market timing that really couldn't be planned. Frampton was the first, or among the first, to benefit from the way the industry was set up to meet a great demand at the time. Talent intersected with opportunity and sold more records than anyone ever.

And then at some point, Rumours happens and sets an even bigger sales record. And then, I guess, Thriller. Maybe I've skipped over some other sales record-breaking albums.

 

I recently read Mansion On The Hill, which is pretty much about the creation of the rock and roll business. They covered Dee Anthony and how Frampton's career was wrecked through bad management - I'm In You and Sgt. Peppers basically. I remember when I'm In You was released with that ridiculous album cover - Frampton was no longer cool. That cover killed him like that Billy Squier video killed his career.

 

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.

 

You're right. I had friends after I'm In You came out that suddenly didn't like Frampton Comes Alive any more when just a year earlier they loved it.

 

I was a freshman in college when Frampton Comes Alive came out. A guy in my dorm had it and when I heard it, I was immediately a fan and loved everything on the album. I saw him several months later when he came to town to support the album and walked out on stage to a very loud crowd. He said "Do you want to hear it like on the album?" and the crowd went crazy, so he basically recreated the album.

I had a chance to listen to his studio versions of the songs, and while some of them were good on the albums, they were nothing, IMO, like the album. And it became the biggest selling live album for a very long time. The only other group that had that same effect on me was Little Feat with Waiting For Columbus. An another amazing album that far overshadowed the studio albums to me.

Peter Frampton is a great guy and I'm really happy for his success after the drop off after Frampton Comes Alive.

 

I don't consider "Frampton Comes Alive" a bad album. I actually enjoy it. But it has never really clicked with me. I like it, but I don't think it's that great. And I feel exactly the same toward "Cheap Trick At Budokan", which is also considered a timeless classic by many.

 

Three words: I'm In You. It's already been mentioned and that's what killed him. It did even more damage than "Sgt Peppers".

Ed

 

Don't you think it's time he came out of the closet?

 

I like him. I've been playing Frampton and Something's Happening a lot. They are very enjoyable. I think the fact of being British made him a bit restrained in a way his US contemporaries weren't. Frampton Comes Alive is one I don't play much, I heard the songs so much growing up. In a way that was more upfront and direct and Frampton was so likable and proficient, that's why it worked. It also captured the zeitgeist of the times in a very interesting way. The sound is great too.

I have I'm in You, Where I Should Be and Breakin' All the Rules. In a way I wish Frampton Comes Alive wasn't such a big hit and he had more consistent success.

Ha, that's an awful song, the album wasn't great either...

 

For me Frampton Comes Alive was a let down. I really enjoyed Wind Of Change and Frampton's Camel.

 

Frampton was quite lucky but it's not as though he didn't deserve his break. FCA was a great collection of tunes from relatively overlooked albums, played with style and grace in an exciting live setting. The album itself was a not-to-be-duplicated commercial phenomenon but part of the formula was its high quality and energetic but friendly tone.

 

I admire Frampton more than I enjoy his music. I've never owned COMES ALIVE or I'M IN YOU, although I do enjoy "I Have Been In You"

I did see him backing up Bowie on the Glass Spider tour in Anaheim.