Penny For Your Thoughts

Album: Frampton (1975)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This 1:27 instrumental is about Penny McCall, the woman Peter Frampton was living with at the time. "I'm going to dedicate this to the one that it was written for," he said when introducing the song on Valentine's Day, 1976 at the Capitol Theatre in New Jersey. "This is for Penny."

    It's the closest Frampton got to putting his relationship with McCall on record at the time. They were both married when they met in 1972 and started dating. They moved in together in 1973, and McCall became Frampton's muse inspiring the songs "Show Me The Way" and "Baby, I Love Your Way." But Frampton was still technically married when he wrote those songs in 1975, so he ascribed them to universal feelings of love. "Penny For Your Thoughts" was his way of naming her without really naming her.

    All of this ended up being drudged up in a court case when they broke up in 1978. McCall wanted compensation for her time devoted to Frampton, but because they didn't have formal agreement in place, Frampton won the case.
  • The song appears on Peter Frampton's 1975 album Frampton, but was much more famously included on his live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, the following year. Both versions are instrumentals with just Peter on acoustic guitar.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers

Bill Medley of The Righteous BrothersSongwriter Interviews

Medley looks back on "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" - his huge hits from the '60s that were later revived in movies.

Mark Arm of Mudhoney

Mark Arm of MudhoneySongwriter Interviews

When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.

Christopher Cross

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Howard Jones

Howard JonesSongwriter Interviews

Howard explains his positive songwriting method and how uplifting songs can carry a deeper message.

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.

Trucking Songs That Were #1 Hits

Trucking Songs That Were #1 HitsSong Writing

The stories behind the biggest hit songs about trucking.