Frampton Comes Alive! Receives Anniversary Upgrade
‘Vinylphyle’ edition of classic live album released for its 50th
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Frampton Comes Alive!, the blockbuster concert LP from former Humble Pie guitarist Peter Frampton that blasted him into superstardom in 1976.
Selling nearly 20 million copies since its release, it remains one of the bestselling live albums to ever get put out there, and remains a pop culture phenomenon for several generations.
Recorded during Frampton’s tour in support of his fourth LP, 1975’s Frampton, the majority of the double album was captured at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. However, Frampton Comes Alive! also contains performances from stops at the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael, California, Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, as well as a concert at SUNY Plattsburgh in Plattsburgh, New York.
And with the Winterland songs recorded on 24-track and the rest on 16-track, this is already one of the best-sounding live albums ever released, whose master tapes were dubbed at 15 inches per second using professional Dolby “A” noise reduction, as reported by Mixonline in 2000.
So what a better way to celebrate the golden anniversary of this historic title than with a high-end remaster as part of Universal Music’s Vinylphyle series, which includes such essential works as The Velvet Underground and Nico and Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun.
The limited Vinylphyle double LP pressing is sourced from the original 1975 1/4-inch production master by legendary emgineer Doug Sax, with lacquers cut by pressed on 180g black vinyl at RTI.
The new packaging, meanwhile, includes a four-panel insert that features a new interview with Frampton by none other than the Internet’s busiest music nerd, Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop, who previously worked with the Vinylphyle folks by writing the liner notes for the VU reissue.
“I can’t believe it’s now been 50 years since Frampton Comes Alive! was released, but that record still feels like a living, breathing moment in my life,” says Frampton in a statement. “When we decided to do this Vinylphyle edition, it was important to me that it be done the right way. I personally asked that the audio be sourced from the original 1975 Doug Sax production master because I wanted it to sound exactly as we heard it back then. This album was born onstage, and hearing it presented this way on vinyl feels like bringing that energy back to life for longtime fans and new listeners alike.”
Since re-emerging in the public eye following a farewell tour in 2019 after he was diagnosed with the degenerative disease inclusion-body myositis, Frampton has kept busy. Especially in the “getting his flowers” department. He received the prestigious Les Paul Innovation Award at NAMM’s TEC Awards in 2019 and most recently received the 2024 Les Paul Spirit Award at the Gibson Garage Nashville, the same year he just so happened to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That’s not to mention his 2020 induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame and also receiving The Myositis Association’s Heroes in the Fight 2023 Patient Ambassador Award.
No word on any Frampton happenings in 2026 beyond the release of this new edition of Comes Alive!, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear anything.
In the meantime, maybe think about upgrading that old Goodwill copy of this album you’ve been hanging onto since the ’90s with this Cadillac that comes out today.
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February 4, 2019 -
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