Player

Player first gained widespread attention thanks to their late-1970s number-one single “Baby Come Back.” The Los Angeles-based outfit came together in 1976 when singer-guitarist Peter Beckett, previously a member of the British band Skyband, joined forces with bassist Ronn Moss and guitarist-keyboardist J.C. Crowley. Once drummer John Friesen came aboard, the group secured a deal with Robert Stigwood’s RSO imprint and released “Baby Come Back,” which held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks during the opening months of 1978. Their self-titled debut album arrived that same year, followed swiftly by the sophomore effort Danger Zone. Crowley soon left to pursue a solo career in country music, after which the remaining trio recorded Room with a View in 1980. Moss and Friesen both departed shortly afterward, leaving Beckett as the sole original member. He kept the name alive long enough to deliver one last album, 1982’s Spies of Life, before shelving Player to concentrate on songwriting and solo work. Moss, for his part, joined the cast of the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987. He and Beckett revived Player in 1995, resulting in the releases Electric Shadows that year and Lost in Reality in 1997. The band performed live on an occasional basis through the rest of the decade and into the 2000s. In 2013 Beckett, Moss, and additional musicians issued Too Many Reasons, Player’s seventh studio album.