|
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born April 22, 1950) is an English musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Frampton had minimal commercial success with his early albums. This changed with Frampton's breakthrough best-selling live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, in 1976. "Baby, I Love Your Way" and "Show Me the Way" were singles. "Do You Feel Like We Do", despite its length, was also popular. The latter two tracks also featured his use of the talk box guitar effect. The album was recorded in 1975, mainly at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, California, where Humble Pie had previously enjoyed a good following. Released in early January, it debuted on the charts on 14 February at number 191. It stayed at the top of the charts, at number one, for 10 weeks, in the Billboard's Top 40 album chart for 55 weeks, and stayed on the Billboard 200 charts in total for 97 Weeks. It was the top selling album of 1976, beating Fleetwood Mac's Fleetwood Mac for the top spot, and was the 14th best seller of 1977. The album became the biggest selling live album at the time of its release and sold over 6 million copies in the US, 16 million worldwide. It has since dropped to fourth all-time, after The Garth Brooks album Double Live, which at 20 times platinum is the best selling live album of all time at present. Bruce Springsteen is next at 13 times with Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band Live 1975 - '85 and The Eagles come in next with Eagles Live at 7 times platinum. Frampton Comes Alive! is 6 times platinum.
The success of Frampton Comes Alive! put him on the cover of Rolling Stone, in a famous shirtless photo by Francesco Scavullo. In late 1976, he and manager Dee Anthony visited the White House at the invitation of Steve Ford, the president's son. The album put Frampton in a position to be offered, and then accept, a co-starring role with The Bee Gees in director Robert Stigwood's poorly received Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Frampton's career seemed to be falling as quickly as it had risen.
His following album, I'm in You (1977) contained the hit title single and went platinum, but fell well short of expectations compared to Frampton Comes Alive!.
In 1979, Frampton returned to the studio following a near-fatal vehicle accident, to record the album Where I Should Be. Among those contributing to the album were past band members Stanley Sheldon (bass), Bob Mayo (keyboards/guitar/vocals), Chad Cromwell (drums), and John Siomos (drums/vocals).
Wikipedia contributors. Peter Frampton. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. May 10, 2009, 02:23 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Frampton&oldid=288988565. Accessed May 11, 2009.
|
