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
, 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
, 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.

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