Player had a hit that any kind of fool could see with their first and biggest single. The band formed when Liverpool native Peter Beckett met Texan John Charles Crowley at a party in Hollywood. They connected with Ronn Moss, who brought in his high school bandmate John Friesen to complete the original foursome. Beckett and Crowley started writing songs together and knew they were onto something with 'Baby Come Back'. Beckett remembers: "We both wrote it together. I was married when I came out to America. She couldn't take the L.A. thing and we got divorced during that period that lead up to 'Baby Come Back'. Initially it started off being about that and Crowley had his own problems. He came up with the verse chord. I came up with the riff. We wrote the verses together. It was over a period of, I'll say days not weeks. It was definitely a 50/50 effort. We had five songs by that stage. We went 'round and played 'live' with acoustics once we got Ron Moss in the band. In people's offices. We got passed on by a whole bunch of people. We kind of looked good. We were real young and healthy. We kind of had that L.A. freshness to us, and the big harmony thing going on. Then we went into Lambert and Potter's office. They were like pinned to the wall and then we played 'Baby Come Back' and they were sold. They got in touch with Al Coury at RSO and played it to the Bee Gees. We made a tape then. They played it to The Bee Gees and Robert Stigwood and they loved it. Next minute we were signed. We were rehearsing just to do a few gigs and our manager comes running into the rehearsal and says 'Your record is number 80 on the Hot 100.' I think that was the most exciting day of our lives. It was even more exciting than when it hit number onw because none of us had ever had a smell of a hit. Number eighty on the Hot 100? Oh my God! And it was great and then it all rolled from there. "
Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter signed them to Haven Records, and after the label folded, helped get them a new deal with RSO. They also produced their eponymous first album with Peter Beckett on vocals and guitars; John Charles Crowley on vocals, guitars, and keyboards; Ronn Moss on bass; and John Friesen on drums and percussion; with numerous studio musicians. They were so impressed with the synthesizer work of Wayne Cook, that they asked him to join the group.
'Baby Come Back' spent three weeks at the top of the US pop chart as part of a nineteen week string of consecutive chart toppers for RSO Records that included four songs from the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack. It was also a top forty hit in the UK. The follow-up single 'This Time I'm In It For Love' made it to number ten.
Player toured that year with Eric Clapton, Heart, and Kenny Loggins; but tensions within the band took their toll. Beckett says: "Well, I remember the tour. That was the tour that broke the band up. The last gig on that tour was at The Coconut Grove in Florida. Let's just say there were various fist fights going on. That was the end of Player."
Crowley considers: "It was time to move on in a different musical direction." He continued writing songs on his own and got a deal with RCA Records. He had some success on the country chart in 1989 with a solo album 'Beneath The Texas Moon'.
Moss reveals: “I started taking acting lessons and going out on auditions. Eventually I just quit the band and decided I was going to try being an actor. I went from having something in the music to having absolutely nothing in the acting! I just worked my way up. I didn’t have any connections at all. So I learned one step at a time.” He spent twenty-five years playing the character of Ridge Forrester on the CBS soap opera 'The Bold and the Beautiful'. He also released a solo album 'Uncovered' in 2005.
Beckett played with the Little River Band for eight years and released a solo album 'Beckett' in 1991. He also played on Moss' solo album. Beckett has written songs for numerous artists such as Olivia Newton-John, The Temptations, Heart, Janet Jackson, Starship, and Kenny Rogers.
Beckett and Moss recorded another Player album in 1995 called 'Electric Shadow' and then 'Lost In Reality'. A new version of Player would form with Beckett and Moss being joined by Elliot Easton of The Cars on guitar, Burleigh Drummond of Ambrosia on drums and Tony Sciuto of Little River Band on keyboards. Player is expected to release a new album 'Too Many Reasons' later this year.
http://www.player-theband.com/
Spending all my nights, all my money going out on the town
Doing anything just to get you off of my mind
But when the morning comes, I'm right back where I started again
Trying to forget you is just a waste of time
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
All day long, wearing a mask of false bravado
Trying to keep up the smile that hides a tear
But as the sun goes down, I get that empty feeling again
How I wish to God that you were here
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
Now that I put it all together
Give me the chance to make you see
Have you used up all the love in your heart
Nothing left for me, ain't there nothing left for me
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, listen, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you
I was wrong, and I just can't live
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
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