{"id":531077,"date":"2026-03-12T09:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531077\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T09:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:11:11","slug":"stone-cold-fever-by-humble-pie-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531077\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone Cold Fever by Humble Pie: The story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come the dawn of the 1970s, no band embodied the stylistic shift of the times more than Humble Pie<\/a>. Psychedelia and the roots revival were on the fade, replaced by the more urgent impulses of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and the heavier end of electric blues.<\/p>\n

Humble Pie \u2013 comprising one-time Herd starlet Peter Frampton<\/a>, former Small Faces leader Steve Marriott<\/a>, ex-Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and teenage drummer Jerry Shirley \u2013 had begun in 1969 as equal parts hard rockers and acoustic troubadours, complete with interchangeable frontmen. But by 1971\u2019s fourth album, Rock On, they\u2019d become a leaner, louder, heavier proposition.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Producer Glyn Johns<\/a> shared a vision with the band\u2019s new manager Dee Anthony.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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\u201cGlyn sat us down and said: \u2018Look, you\u2019ve made some great albums already, but we have to narrow the direction\u2019,\u201d recalls Frampton. \u201c\u2018This is my viewpoint: Steve\u2019s the singer, Pete\u2019s the guitar player and sometimes singer, Jerry\u2019s the drummer and Greg\u2019s the bass player. Now get on with it\u2019. And he was right. It was about how to channel our strengths. And I believe that\u2019s why Rock On was such a powerful record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s blasted white boy blues was best served by standout track Stone Cold Fever. Led off by a monolithic Frampton riff, the song is a four-minute powerhouse of whiplash boogie, complete with rolling harmonica and a yelping lead vocal from Marriott.<\/p>\n

Marriott would usually suggest the band should all sing, and they\u2019d disappear into separate areas of the studio to write their own lyric parts. But on this occasion, there was no question as to who would sing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMainly because it was so damn high in range, it was determined that Steve would sing the lead all the way through the song,\u201d explains Jerry Shirley. \u201cThe East End barrow boy singing the Delta blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite this, Stone Cold Fever was a prime example of Humble Pie at their most democratic, with all four members sharing a writing credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think that Steve just came into Humble Pie and stole the show,\u201d says Frampton. \u201cBut at that point he was always very open. He knew he had to take the responsibility because he was blessed with that voice and that talent, but he wanted to share it. It was just that he was a special character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frampton may have kicked things off with his power chords, but an unexpected highlight of the track is his deftly expressive solo over a mid-section detour into jazz.<\/p>\n

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\"Humble\n<\/p>\n

Humble Pie onstage in London’s Hyde Park, July 1971 (Image credit: Central Press\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at our most harmonious in every way, musically and personally,\u201d says Shirley. \u201cFor most of the group-written stuff, Steve or Peter would come up with an idea. Then, as it all developed, Greg and I would help arrange the whole song. In this case we mostly put the middle piece together, which had the jazzy kind of feel that Peter was playing on top of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such was the band\u2019s prowess at this point \u2013 the product of punishing tour schedules and endless rehearsals \u2013 that the entire song was nailed in no time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we\u2019d finished putting it together, we took a break and made some tea,\u201d Frampton recalls. \u201cThey all had a joint, but I hadn\u2019t started to imbibe at that point. Steve disappeared into a corner, and within 20 minutes or so he\u2019d written the words. The next time we played it was when we actually recorded it in the studio with Glyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

America was by now Humble Pie\u2019s primary stomping ground. Rock On made the lower reaches of the Billboard chart. But the major breakthrough came later that year when Performance: Rockin\u2019 The Fillmore \u2013 recorded live in May \u201871 \u2013 reached No.21 in the US and became Humble Pie\u2019s first gold-selling record.<\/p>\n

It also made the Top 40 in the UK, a fitting reward for a set that suggested they were nearing a peak. The sole original song among the inspired blues and R&B covers was an inflammatory version of Stone Cold Fever. Yet all wasn\u2019t as harmonious as it seemed. Just before the release of Performance\u2026 in November that year, Frampton decided to quit.<\/p>\n

Humble Pie had grown into a fearsome beast, but it meant there was no longer any place for his more ruminative, acoustic side. Plus, there was a sense that, with Marriott now the de facto leader, Frampton\u2019s days as frontman were more or less over.<\/p>\n

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\"Press\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: A& M Records)<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely no one saw it coming,\u201d says Shirley. \u201cThere was an inkling that Peter wasn\u2019t happy in that Steve was starting to wear on him. But then Steve wore on everybody. He was a lovely man, funny as fuck, but he just didn\u2019t know how to turn off. And when someone like that is on the go 24-7, he becomes real hard work to be around. We knew that Steve irritated him, but no more or less than he did me and Greg. It\u2019s just that we seemed to handle it better. Then out of nowhere, Peter said: \u2018That\u2019s it. I\u2019ve left the group.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Frampton, for his part, insists that he left to further his ambitions as a solo artist. He does, though, admit it was a decision he didn\u2019t take lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaving Humble Pie was a huge decision. When I told him, Steve was very upset. I didn\u2019t really want to leave, but I knew I had to. I felt bad about it, to be honest. But I just had this survivor mentality: \u2018Well, that was that. Now on to something else\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He broke the news on the day Anthony called them into his hotel suite to show off the finished sleeve for the live album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was only about 21 when I left. And of course when \u2026Rockin\u2019 The Fillmore took off and my bank balance was getting much lower, I thought I\u2019d made the worst decision. I thought, \u2018This is it. It\u2019s been great so far, but now I\u2019ve blown it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out, of course, that he needn\u2019t have feared at all. In the 70s he attained superstardom with the multimillion-selling Frampton Comes Alive! <\/a>album. Humble Pie, meanwhile, with Dave \u2018Clem\u2019 Clempson as his replacement, consolidated their newfound success with albums like Smokin\u2019 and Eat It, before finally disbanding in 1975.<\/p>\n

For Jerry Shirley, the Frampton years still exert a strong pull. \u201cWe were one of the best live rock and blues bands there ever was. There was no one better at the time. The thing about us was that we were consistent. We never had a bad night. But more than anything else, it was just so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Classic Rock 191, published in December 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come the dawn of the 1970s, no band embodied the stylistic shift of the times more than Humble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-531077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}