Best remembered for the late-'70s chart-topper "Baby Come Back,"
Player were formed in Los Angeles in 1977 by singer/guitarist
Peter Beckett (formerly of the U.K. group Skyband), bassist
Ronn Moss, and guitarist/keyboardist
J.C. Crowley. After adding drummer
John Friesen,
Player signed to impresario
Robert Stigwood's RSO label and issued "Baby Come Back," which sat atop the pop singles chart for three weeks in early 1978; their self-titled debut LP appeared that same year, as did the follow-up,
Danger Zone.
Crowley exited
Player soon after, later enjoying a solo career as a country artist; the remaining trio issued
Room with a View in 1980 before
Moss and
Friesen both departed as well.
Beckett, the lone remaining founding member, continued the group for one final LP, 1982's
Spies of Life, before retiring the
Player name to mount a career as a songwriter and solo performer.
Moss, meanwhile, joined the cast of the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987; he and
Beckett re-formed
Player in 1995, soon thereafter issuing the reunion LP
Lost in Reality.
–
Jason Ankeny, Rovi