Peter Frampton - ...and on guitar (1975)

Peter Kenneth Frampton was born on 22 April 1950, and first became interested in music when he was seven years old, having discovered his grandmother's banjolele in the attic, and teaching himself to play it, going on to later teach himself guitar and piano as well. His early influences were Cliff Richard & the Shadows, especially guitarist Hank Marvin, and American rockers Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. By the age of 12 he was playing in The Little Ravens, while both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at Bromley Technical School, where his father Owen Frampton was Bowie's art instructor. By the age of 14 he was playing with The Trubeats, followed by The Preachers, who were produced and managed by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. In 1966 he became a member of the Herd, where he was the lead guitarist and singer, and the band scored several British hit singles, at the same time as Frampton was named 'The Face of 1968' by teen magazine Rave. In 1969, while still only 18 years old, he joined with recently departed Small Faces guitarist Steve Marriott to form Humble Pie, going on to record one live and four studio albums with them, and while playing with Humble Pie he also did session recordings with other artists, including Harry Nilsson (and his alter ego Buck Earl for the 'I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City' single), John Entwistle, Andy Bown, Lon & Derrek Van Eaton and Suzi Quatro. Frampton left Humble Pie in 1971 and embarked on a solo career, with his debut album 'Wind Of Change' coming out in 1972, and featuring guest artists Ringo Starr and Billy Preston. This was followed by 'Frampton's Camel' in 1973, which featured Frampton working within a group project, then 'Something's Happening' in 1974, and 'Frampton' in 1975.

He had little commercial success with his early albums, but this all changed when he released his live album 'Frampton Comes Alive' in 1976, from which the hit singles 'Baby, I Love Your Way' and 'Show Me The Way' were extracted, and the album was on the Billboard 200 for 97 weeks, of which 55 were in the top 40, and 10 were at the top, becoming the best selling album of 1976. His following-up 'I'm In You' contained the hit title single and went platinum, but fell well short of expectations compared to its predecessor, with all subsequent releases being unfavourably compared to that high-point. Frampton suffered a near-fatal car accident in the Bahamas in 1978 which marked the end of this prolific period of his career, returning to the studio in 1979 to record the album 'Where I Should Be', and releasing records fairly regularly since then. Although his albums generally met with little commercial success, he achieved a brief, moderate comeback of sorts in 1986 with the release of his 'Premonition' album, and the single 'Lying' was a big hit on the mainstream rock charts. His heyday, though, was undoubtedly the early to mid 70's, not only with his own albums, but also with guest appearances on records by fellow artists. The Johnny Halliday track has an interesting story, as by the end of 1968 the original Small Faces were in the middle of breaking up, with Steve Marriott going on to form Humble Pie, and the rest of the band morphing into The Faces. In late December the group were asked to collaborate with French pop legend Johnny Halliday on an album that was to showcase his attempt at hard-rock, and Marriott dragged his chum Frampton along to the recording sessions. Marriott and Lane donated three songs to the project, two of which were later recorded by Humble Pie under different titles, so this track is something of a curiosity to start this showcase of Peter Frampton's guest appearances in the first half of the 1970's.

  

Track listing

01 Regarde Pour Moi (from 'Riviere Ouvre Ton Lit' by Johnny Halliday 1969)
02 Girl From Denver (from 'Don't Freak Me Out' by Jimmy Stevens 1972)
03 The Blues In England (from 'Feel Your Groove' by Ben Sidran 1971)
04 Open Your Eyes (from' Gone To My Head' by Andy Bown 1972)
05 Sweet Music (single by Lon & Derrek Van Eaton 1972)
06 Rolling Stone (single by Suzi Quatro 1972)
07 I Guess The Lord Must Be Tn New York City (single by Buck Earl 1972)
08 Perfection (from 'Painted Head' by Tim Hardin 1973)
09 Ten Little Friends (from 'Whistle Rymes' by John Entwistle 1972)
10 Life Goes On (from 'Essence To Essence' by Donovan 1973)
11 Celebration (from 'First Of The Big Bands' by Tony Ashton & Jon Lord 1974)
12 The Serf (from 'Everything Changes' by Leslie Duncan 1974)
13 Daybreak (from 'Son Of Dracula' by Harry Nilsson 1974)
14 Slow Down (from 'Get Off Of My Cloud' by Alexis Korner 1975)