- Writers: Peter Wolf and Seth Justman
- Producer: Seth Justman
- Recorded: Spring 1981 in Long View Farm, Massachusetts
- Released: October 26th, 1981
- Players:
Peter Wolf — vocals
Seth Justman — keyboards, vocals
J. Geils — guitar
Danny Klein — bass
“Magic” Dick Salwitz — harmonica, vocals
Stephen Jo Bladd — drums, vocals - Album: Freeze-Frame (EMI, 1981)
- Also On:
Showtime! (EMI, 1983)
Flashback (EMI, 1985)
Houseparty: The J. Geils Band Anthology (Rhino, 1993)
Best Of (EMI, 2006) - “Freeze-Frame” was the second single from the J. Geils Band album of the same name.
- It followed the chart-topping success of its predecessor, “Centerfold.”
- Those were the only two Top 10 hits in the Boston band’s career.
- The Freeze-Frame album spent four weeks at Number One on the Billboard 200, and it was the band’s first platinum album.
- But while the group enjoyed the project’s success and the larger audiences that were coming to see them, singer Peter Wolf said that sales were not what motivated the band: “I don’t think the J. Geils Band’s whole goal was to have a Number One record. It was to make a good rock-and-roll record and have some excitement. The charts tend to make people focus in on one, two, three, four. Anyone who feels that kind of achievement is going to solve anything is in for a disappointment… But it’s something you’re glad happens. Being Number One is an exciting thing. It was a great sense of accomplishment after what we’d been through.”
FAST FORWARD:
- Wolf left the J. Geils Band in 1983.
- The group continued for one more album, 1984’s You’re Gettin’ Even While I’m Gettin’ Odd, and then split up.
- The J. Geils Band reunited for a short summer tour in 1999. Since then, they’ve only played together a few times — a millennium New Year’s Eve gig in Detroit in 1982; at the wedding of Bladd’s daughter a few years ago; at a benefit for hockey star Cam Neeley‘s charity organization in 2005; and a surprise 60th birthday party for Geils Band bassist Danny Klein last year.
- Guitarist J. Geils and harmonica player Magic Dick have formed another band called Bluestime.
The group’s breakup was a bitter one, but there don’t seem to be a lot of hurt feelings — Geils has worked with Klein’s band Stone Crazy, and Magic Dick has recorded with both Wolf and keyboardist Seth Justman.