Baby Come Back (1977)

Performer: Player                                                 Writer: J.C. Crowley & Peter Beckett
Highest US Chart Position: #1                              Label: RSO Records
Musicians: Peter Beckett, J.C. Crowley, Wayne Cook, Ronn Moss and John Friesen

Like most of the songs on this blog, there are very specific circumstances associated with this song for me. I was a freshman in high school in the winter of 1977. Our high school was a 9-12 but most of the freshman activities were separate from those of the upper classes, and band was no exception. While the high school jazz band was a regular class, the freshman jazz band had to meet before school at six thirty in the morning. One morning I arrived early at school and parked in the student lot behind the gym. It was pitch black outside and I turned off my lights and decided to keep listening to the radio for a little while before I walked up the stairs to the band room. I had already heard “Baby Come Back” by Player on the radio, but it wasn’t until I had this opportunity to simply listen to the music without any other distraction that I was completely enthralled with this song. There’s a real subtleness to the music, emphasizing the keyboards rather than the guitars, although the twin guitar lines are very memorable. Like a lot of seventies tunes, it has re-entered the popular culture in less than flattering ways, cartoon shows and commercials, amid a general disrespect for music of the era. But it was still a number one hit, and deservedly so, and that will never change.

The song begins with John Friesen tapping out sixteenth notes on a closed hi-hat, and Ronn Moss laying down a simple bass line. Wayne Cook’s keyboard “strum” fills in for two measures before the two lead guitars come in harmonizing, heavy with effects to make it sound as if it’s being run through a Leslie speaker, and supported by a string machine. Then the music stops, gradually fading out until the lyrics begin on the downbeat. It’s a classic breakup song, and was compared in the music press to Hall and Oates’ “She’s Gone,” something the band members resented as their album, on the whole, had a much different sound. The cascading keyboards are the central element of the backing tracks, including the piano on the chorus, as are the distinctive lead guitar parts on the chorus. The real aural hook of the song is the chorus itself, and the dense harmonies that are sung throughout. After the second verse and chorus the bridge is also sung in harmony, with interesting keyboard and clavinet parts separating the phrases. This section builds to a real crescendo with some high vocals by Crowley and then the signature stop, with a keyboard sliding up and fading out. And then it’s back to the chorus, which slows to a kind of false ending before resuming and fading out.

Player began at a Hollywood party where Liverpudlian guitarist Peter Beckett met Texas guitarist and keyboardist John Charles Crowley. Despite their disparate beginnings, the two seemed to have a similar outlook on music and, after a successful jam session, decided that they should put together a band. They eventually brought in bassist Ronn Moss and drummer John Friesen, and later added keyboardist Wayne Cook who didn’t join the group in time to make the cover photo for the album. The group had originally signed with Haven Records, distributed first by Capitol and then Arista, and when the company folded they went over to RSO with the former heads of Haven, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. Their first album had been recorded for Haven but when released by Robert Stigwood’s company it fit seamlessly into their organization. “Baby Come Back” entered the charts on October 1, 1977 and reached number one in mid-January of the following year, with the lively pop-rock number “Love Is Where You Find It” on the B-side. It just so happens that the group Player replaced in the number one slot was another of RSO’s acts, The Bee Gees, the beginning of an end-of-the-decade onslaught of chart hits for the label.