Frampton Comes Alive In New York

There is a very good chance that you or someone in your household owns a copy of the Peter Frampton album "Frampton Comes Alive" but were you there when it was recorded? Since it's release January of 1976 the double-live album has sold over 8 million copies in the United States and over 11 million worldwide.

With every album released on a major label there are songs chosen as singles with the hope that these singles will be played on Classic Rock radio stations like Q1057. From "Frampton Comes Alive" the songs "Show Me the Way", "Baby I Love Your Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do?" were the chosen ones and each receive substantial radio play to this date.

I have been fortunate enough to be in the audience for a few live performance recordings. I was in the studio for the VH1 Storytellers featuring Stevie Nicks and the Mtv Unplugged episode with Staind. I was also in the arena when Five Finger Death Punch filmed the video for "Wash It All Away". All of these experiences were cool in their own right but you may have topped my experiences.

45 years ago this week Peter Frampton played Memorial Hall at SUNY Plattsburgh to fewer than 1000 people. Were you one of them? According to the Peter Frampton Facebook page tickets were sold for $2 each to students and $4 each to the general public.

During that show Frampton performed, among others, "Baby I Love Your Way" and the Plattsburgh version ended up on one of the most popular Live Rock albums of all time, "Frampton Comes Alive". The double live album spent 10 weeks at #1 starting in April of 1976 and was the best selling album of that year.

So what made that performance special enough to end up as Track #3 on Side 2? That is the magic of the live concert performance. Each night, each song, venue and audience add to the result of each show and that is one of the many reasons that we miss seeing live shows in 2020.

I can't wait until we can return to SPAC, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and all of the great venues of the Capital Region to hear the magic again. If you were in the audience on November 22, 1975 you should feel proud that you added to the chemistry of the evening and maybe you made the difference in getting that song on one of the greatest live albums of all time.

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