Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!

At the time of its release, Frampton Comes Alive! was an anomaly, a multi-million-selling (mid-priced) double LP by an artist who had previously never burned up the charts with his long-players in any spectacular way. The biggest-selling live album of all time, it made Peter Frampton a household word and generated a monster hit single in "Show Me the Way." And the reason why is easy to hear: the Herd/Humble Pie graduate packed one hell of a punch on-stage -- where he was obviously the most comfortable -- and, in fact, the live versions of "Show Me the Way," "Do You Feel Like I Do," "Something's Happening," "Shine On," and other album rock staples are much more inspired, confident, and hard-hitting than the studio versions. [The 1999 reissue in A&M's "Remastered Classics" (31454-0930-2) series is a considerable improvement over the original double CD or double LP in terms of sound -- the highs are significantly more lustrous, the guitars crunch and soar, and the bottom end really thunders, and so you get a genuine sense of the power of Frampton's live set, at least the heavier parts of his set, rather than the compressed and flat sonic profile of the old double-disc version. Frampton and the band sound significantly closer as well, even on the softer songs such as "Wind of Change," and the disc is impressive listening even a quarter century later. Of course, one must take this all with a grain of salt as a concert document -- as was later revealed, there was considerable studio doctoring of the raw live tapes, a phenomenon that set the stage for such unofficial hybrid works as Bruce Springsteen's Live/1975-85 and countless others.] ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Name Credits Bob Mayo Guitar, Keyboards, Fender Rhodes, Synthesizer, Piano, Vocals, Organ Cameron Crowe Liner Notes Chris Kimsey Engineer, Remixing Corky Stasiak Assistant Engineer Dave Wittman Assistant Engineer David Redfern Photography Eddie Kramer Engineer Frankie d'Augusta Assistant Engineer Ian Dickson Photography Jay Messina Assistant Engineer John Siomos Drums Mike Reese Mastering Mike Zagaris Photography Neal Teeman Assistant Engineer Peter Frampton Main Performer, Guitar, Remixing, Keyboards, Producer, Bass, Talk Box, Arranger, Vocals Ray Thompson Engineer Richard Aaron Photography, ? Roland Young Art Direction, Artwork Stan Evenson Design Stanley Sheldon Bass, Vocals, Guitar (Bass)