In the wake of his death, much has been written this week about Clive Davis’s ability to identify a hit when he heard it, but even legendary talent-spotters get it wrong sometimes.
Such was the case with ’70s soft-rock outfit Player, and a 1977 song of theirs that would end up topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks. Prior to this, Davis had the chance to sign the band and release said song, but he elected to pass.
We’re talking about Baby Come Back, the soulful lead single from Player’s eponymous debut album. Written by guitarist/vocalist Peter Beckett and keyboard player JC Crowley, the band’s founding members, it sounds like the epitome of smooth west coast pop, but the song’s road to the top was actually rather rocky.
Born in Liverpool, Beckett moved to LA in 1974 to try and make it as an artist and songwriter, but he wasn’t having much luck. With money running out, he was eventually invited up to a party in the Hollywood Hills, where he met and bonded with Crowley.
Speaking to the Rock History Music channel on YouTube, Beckett said: “He was totally different to me – he was a Texan country singer and I was a Liverpool rocker – but we got on great, and so a couple of days later we got together and started writing in his garage. We wrote a handful of songs which we eventually started hawking around the producers in LA without much success.”