Peter Frampton - Show Me The Way

1976 was a year that really belonged to Peter Frampton. As a very young man, he had been a part of the band Humble Pie, which had some success both artistically and commercially in the late 60s and early 70s. By the end of 1971 he left the band to venture on a solo path, and put out several albums that were well-reviewed, and decent but not great sales. In 1976 he released a live double album, Frampton Comes Alive, and all that changed. He because the poster boy for rock music, and his songs ran up the charts. It all started with the release of Show Me The Way, which went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and put the record in the limelight.



The second single off the album was the ballad, Baby, I Love Your Way. It was a song that was played at every high school dance I ever went to, and everyone was supposed to slow dance to it.



Like many of the rockers of the day, Frampton looked great with no shirt, or with one flailing wide open in the breeze. His boyish good looks, the floppy mass of hair, big doe eyes and those amazing lips certainly never hurt his appeal. And, bless his heart, he could play the guitar pretty damn well. If you need proof, you can check out the final single off the album, the rocking Do You Feel Like We Do?. It made it to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and had a great guitar solo!



Interestingly enough, the first two were released as singles from earlier albums, and went nowhere on the charts. But with the live album, Frampton's career and life exploded. And forever, 1976 will be considered his year.

Worth Another Listen - Peter Frampton

The year was 1976, and I was a in my sophomore year of high school. I might have been a theater geek, had short hair and wore clothes that were not the latest fashions, but I was listening to the biggest thing that year, Frampton Comes Alive. This was the 'time of the live album' with others like Cheap Trick's Live At Budokan going crazy with sales, but nothing was a sensation. It eventually was certified Platinum six times over. It spent 10 weeks in the top spot on the US charts.




Frampton was so sexy in that floppy-haired, toothy-smiled, rocker-lite way. I was quite smitten. I heard it all the time, from at friend's houses to on the radio, there was no escaping. But I loved it. Yes, it clashed with my collection of Barbra Streisand albums, and was lighter than my Led Zeppelin fascination. Damn, that boy was hot. The first single was Baby, I Love Your Way, a lovely power ballad that was a must slow-song at every dance in Smyrna for years. For some reason, this song topped out on the charts in 12th.



The next single was Do You Feel Like We Do, the hardest of the three singles. While it had little support on the Top 40 stations, it still managed to climb up to the Top 10.



That was followed by Show Me The Way, a mid-tempo rock song that also burnt up the airwaves. FM-Rock stations, Top 40-AM stations, they all were playing it. The use of the 'voice box' effect could be seen as a precursor to the auto-tune effect that seems so damn rampant now. Show Me The Way turned out to be the highest charting of the singles, hitting number 6 on the charts.



Sure, Peter Frampton had albums before this, and albums after, but in 1976, everything was all about Frampton Comes Alive. So many memories, some good, some not so good, like most kids in high school, come back when listening to these songs.

You can find out more about Peter Frampton at his official website here.