Peter Frampton is an English rock musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. By the age of 12, Frampton played in a band called the Little Ravens. Both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at Bromley Technical School. The Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie’s band, George and the Dragons. Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs. He became a successful child singer, and in 1966 he became a member of the Herd. He was the lead guitarist and singer, scoring several British pop hits.
In 1969, when Frampton was 18 years old, he joined with Steve Marriot of the Small Faces to form Humble Pie. While playing with Humble Pie, Frampton also did session recording with other artists, including: Harry Nilsson and Jerry Lee Lewis. Pete Drake introduced him to the “talk box” that was to become one of his trademark guitar effects. After four studio albums and one live album with the band, Frampton left and went solo in 1971.
His own debut was 1972’s Winds of Change, with guest artists Ringo Starr and Billy Preston. This album was followed by Frampton’s Camel in 1973, which featured Frampton working within a group project. In 1974, Frampton released Somethin’s Happening. Frampton toured extensively to support his solo career, joined for three years by his former Herd mate Andy Bown on keyboards. In 1975, the Frampton. album was released. The album went to No. 32 in the US charts, and is certified gold.
Peter Frampton had little commercial success with his early albums. This changed with Frampton’s best-selling live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, in 1976, from which “Baby I Love Your Way”, “Show Me The Way”, and an edited version of “Do You Feel LikeWe Do”, were hit singles. The latter two tracks also featured his use of the talk box guitar effect. The album was recorded in 1975, mainly at the Winterland Ball in San Francisco. where Humble Pie had previously enjoyed a good following. Frampton Comes Alive was released in early January. The album was on the Billboard 200 for 97 weeks, of which 55 were in the top 40, of which 10 were at the top. The album became the top selling album of 1976, and it was also the 14th best seller of 1977. With sales of eight million copies it became the biggest selling live album, although with others subsequently selling more it is now the fourth biggest. Frampton Comes Alive! has been certified as eight times platinum.The album won Frampton a Juno Award in 1977.
A tribute to the album’s staying power, readers of Rolling Stone ranked Frampton Comes Alive No. 3 in a 2012 poll of all-time favourite live albums. The article’s text stated, “He was loved by teenage girls, and their older brothers. He owned the year 1976 like nobody else in rock.” The success of Frampton Comes Alive! put him on the cover of Rolling Stone, in a famous shirtless photo by Francesco Scavullo. Frampton later said he regrets the photo because it changed his image as a credible artist into a teen idol.
Frampton’s 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! lthough his albums generally met with little commercial success, Frampton continued to record throughout the 1980s. He did, however, achieve a brief, moderate comeback of sorts in 1986 with the release of his Premontion album, and the single “Lying”, which became a big hit on the Mainstream charts. Most notably, he also united with old friend David Bowie, and both worked together to make albums. Frampton played on Bowie’s 1987 album Never Let Me Down and sang and played on the accompanying Glass Spider Tour. Frampton would, in 2013, credit his participation in this tour for helping revive his career.
