Hot Rod's Blog

Peter Frampton broke away from Humble Pie on September 20, 2013. His solo debut, "Winds of Change" would follow a year later. Frampton's solo career was rather ho-hum until he released the live album "Frampton Comes Alive!" in 1977. The album became the biggest selling live recording at the time and raked up sales of six million albums and yielded several of his biggest hits. Peter was a schoolmate of David Bowie at Bromley Technical School. While still a member of Humble Pie, Frampton would discover the "talk box", his signature guitar effect, while working on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" sessions. In 2013, he toured the U.S. with "Frampton's Guitar Circus" and he will start an European trek in October. Humble Pie fans are awaiting the coming release of the bands legendary "Rockin' The Fillmore" to be issued in a four-disc set on October 29th.

Boston released their first and biggest hit "More Than A Feeling" on September 18, 1976. It reportedly, took Tom Scholz five years to compose the song which reached #5 on the Billboard singles chart and propelled the band's debut album to 17 million in sales ( a record for a debut album in the U.S.). The single, which featured "Smokin" on the flipside, was dubbed the 39th Best Hard Rock Song of All Time by VH1.


Billy Joel recorded his signature hit "Piano Man " on September 17, 1973 which is a fictionalized account of his career as a lounge singer in Los Angeles. It was his first hit and only reached #25 in Billboard. The 64-year old singer-songwriter is third all-time in sales among solo artist and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. It was recently announced that Billy Joel with be among the honorees at the 36th Annual Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony in December.