8. Frampton Comes Alive! – Peter Frampton (A&M – 1976)
British guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Peter Frampton had been a member of the bands The Herd and Humble Pie before signing to A&M Records as a solo artist in the early `70s. He released four mildly performing studio albums at the company which was beloved for sticking behind artists it truly believed in. That loyalty paid off grandly when a double-LP live album was painstakingly cobbled together by Frampton from shows performed in four separate venues from northern California to Pittsburgh. This juggernaut spawned the crossover Top 40 AM radio hits “Show Me The Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way” as well as the deeper FM radio staples “Lines On My Face” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.”
The real magic was in the way Frampton re-sequenced and sweetened the raw live tapes to create a live rock concert experience that, unlike most live rock albums of the period, sounded great and truly transported you into the experience – from the quiet intimacy of numbers like “(All I Want to Be Is) By Your Side,” “Wind of Change” and the acoustic instrumental “Penny For Your Thoughts” to the rave ups “Something’s Happening,” “I Wanna Go to the Sun” and a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash” (the only song of the 14 not penned by Frampton – cha-ching). Slap a cheeky foldout photo of Peter clutching a black custom Les Paul guitar with his golden backlit locks on the cover that doubled as a gatefold bedroom poster and you have the rock shot heard `round the globe. Click NEXT for the next album.
