Peter Frampton emerged from the swinging English rock scene of the 1960s. He started studying classical guitar at the age of eight but spent more time playing rock and roll than practicing his scales. By his early teens he was playing with rock and rhythm and blues combos in his hometown of Beckenham, Kent; at age fourteen he appeared onstage with American blues artist Jimmy Reed. He dropped out of high school to join the up-and-coming mod/pop band, the Herd. The group had several Top Twenty hits in the United Kingdom and Frampton became a teen idol; but he wished to be taken more seriously as an artist, so he quit the band and began looking for a new opportunity. It came in 1969, when Steve Marriot asked him to join his band the Small Faces, a blues/mod/rock outfit poised on the brink of international stardom. Marriot, however, hadn't cleared the invitation with the rest of the Faces; when they vetoed Frampton he quit, and the two formed a new group, Humble Pie.
Conflicts within the band surfaced quickly, as Marriot, Frampton, and bassist Greg Ridley, each the front man of his previous group, jockeyed for position and artistic control. After several albums Marriot emerged as the lead singer and primary guitarist; rather than be relegated to a supporting role, Frampton decided to strike out on his own. His first solo album, Winds of Change, was completed with a little help from his friends Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, and Klaus Voorman, but it did not attract the kind of attention Frampton had hoped for. He threw himself into touring and over the next few years built a fan base and a catalogue of well-written songs like "Show Me the Way," and "Baby I Love Your Way." His career exploded in 1976 with the release of Frampton Comes Alive, a double live album recorded at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco in 1975. The record spent ten weeks at number one and has sold (to date) sixteen million copies. Frampton thus became the first of a series of mega-platinum artists to emerge in the late 1970s.
Though his next album went triple platinum, it did not generate the same kind of excitement as his previous outing. His role as Billy Shears in the movie Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band—an appallingly tasteless concept that ranks as one of the biggest box office bombs in history—did not help his career; and a near-fatal car accident prevented him from capitalizing on whatever good will remained from Frampton Comes Alive.
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The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton
Must Haves:
 "Do You Feel Like We Do?"
"Baby I Love Your Way"
"All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side)"
"Doobie Wah"
"Butter Milk Boy" (with Humble Pie)
Eddie Money, Journey, Supertramp
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