Player

Frequently heard on Japanese FM radio at the time, the famous ‘Baby Come Back’ (1977) will be nostalgic for the original ‘Junior’ generation. This is the debut of the four-piece American West Coast band known for that song. It reached No. 1 in the United States in 1978, the year after the album appeared, followed by the No. 10 ‘This Time I'm in It for Love.’ Billboard selected Player as its best new singles artist in 1978, and Eric Clapton chose them as the opening act for his North American tour that year. It was an excellent start for a new band.

The band's central figures and principal songwriters were Peter Beckett (vocals, guitar) and J. C. Crowley (vocals, keyboards, guitar). Beckett's former band Skyband had included British songwriter Steve Kipner, who later wrote such hits as Olivia Newton-John's ‘Physical’ (1981) and Chicago's ‘Hard Habit to Break’ (1984). Beckett's AOR sensibility and pop instincts surely owed something to Kipner. Kipner is in fact credited as co-writer on two songs here.