Our final classic Yacht Rock song of the day this week is “Baby Come Back” by Player. This tune was enormously successful, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for three consecutive weeks in the fall of 1977.
Of all the Yacht Rock songs this week, “Baby Come Back” is the least Yachtski. The old Yacht or Nyacht? website (no longer active) gave this one just a 58.5 rating, which barely qualifies as Yacht Rock. I suppose this track is more soft rock than Yacht Rock, even though all the Yacht Rock stations claim this one as their own. It definitely has that keyboard-driven smooth jazz-like groove, whatever you want to call it.
“Baby Come Back” was the first hit for the band Player, who hailed from Los Angeles. The group, consisting of one Brit and four Yanks, had a short run of three Top 40 hits, of which “Baby Come Back” was their first and their biggest. (Their other two were 1977’s “This Time I’m In It for Love” and 1978’s “Prisoner of Love.”) At the time, they toured with the likes of Gino Vannelli and Boz Skaggs, both Yacht Rock royalty today.
According to famed disc jockey and cultural icon Casey Kasem, on the November 5, 1977 broadcast of American Top 40, “Baby Come Back” was written after the two songwriters (bandmembers Peter Beckett and J.C. Crowley) had broken up with their girlfriends. It has to be true, because Casey said so. On the radio.
Player’s career stalled fairly quickly and they more or less broke up in 1980, although they got together in one form or another a few more times over the years. They’re still touring today on the Yacht Rock circuit.
