Peter Frampton was a huge success with the album “Frampton Comes Live” from 1976. The label wanted to repeat these achievements as quickly as possible and encouraged him to release a sequel. This is how the album saw the light of day a year later “I’m In You”which was supposed to popularize the singer even more among a mainly female audience.
He appeared on the cover in colorful clothes – fabric pants and an unbuttoned shirt. Shortly after this, the guitarist began to be ridiculed for the cheapness of his appearance. As he confessed in “The Bob Lefsetz Podcast”, today he very much regrets this decision. “It was the ‘Little Lord’ outfit, that’s what I call him,” he said, referring to the main character of the famous novel. “On the cover I should be wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket or something similar,” admitted the musician, who considers the cover one of the “worst mistakes in his career.” “But I was dressed as Lord Fauntleroy with satin pants, white clogs and some terrible women’s top,” he recalls.
Apart from the fact that the photo embarrassed not only rock fans, but also the artist himself. Additionally, Peter Frampton believes that it was completely unsuited to the changing trends in music at that time. “This (outfit) would have looked good a year earlier,” says the 73-year-old musician. “But then we had the Sex Pistols. Everything changed drastically overnight. And I was no longer up to date and out of sync,” he claims.
Frampton admits that at that time he felt external pressure to release the new album relatively quickly, and best of all to surpass the success of “Frampton Comes Alive”, which is still one of the best-selling live music albums in history (in 1976 it was sold in the USA 8 million pieces; approx. 20 million copies to date). The guitarist didn’t want to rush. “They say you’re only as good as your last album. Well, until we release another record, I’m as good as Frampton Comes Alive. But everyone said I shouldn’t wait too long because it would start to scare me,” he explains. .
At that time, the musician was struggling with problems with alcohol and substances, so the creative process was not going very well for him. “Everything distracted me and it was demotivating,” he recalls. Ultimately, the material on which he was supported by, among others, Mick Jagger Whether Steve Wonder he gave it to the label rather reluctantly and with the understanding that he didn’t want it to be released. “I said I didn’t want to publish it, but I knew you would. (…) I was just very disappointed that I didn’t have time to spend the next few years writing,” he confessed.
Ultimately, “I’m in You” was a major commercial success – among studio albums, it was his greatest achievement, reaching number 2 on the Billboard 200 and going platinum. It was number 1 in Canada, and the title track is still one of Frampton’s biggest hits.