"Baby Come Back" is a song by the Americanrock bandPlayer. It was released in late 1977 as the lead single from their 1977 self-titled debut album, and was the breakthrough single for the band, gaining them mainstream success, hitting number one on the US BillboardHot 100 and number ten on the R&B charts in 1978. Their biggest hit single, the song was written and performed by Peter Beckett and J.C. Crowley, the founders of Player. Two versions of the song exist. The album version ends with a guitar solo fade out, while the single version has a shorter opening and ends with the chorus being repeated on a fade out.
In 2011, it was the source of a parody by Chicago artist, Magic 1, entitled "Cutty Come Back", which alludes to the Chicago Bears' woes without quarterback Jay Cutler. The song is also used in the Michael Bay blockbuster Transformers, when the AutobotBumblebee communicates with its new owner Sam Witwicky through songs on the radio. In this case, after an incident with the girl he is attracted to, Mikaela, gets out of the car and Sam tries to persuade her to "come back". The lyrics of the song are expected to accomplish this desire, as laid out by the filmmakers, though it is unlikely given the context that she would actually come back anyway. Actress/singer Vanessa Hudgens sampled the song in her debut single, "Come Back To Me" on her debut album, V in 2006. In The Simpsons episode "Homer Alone," when Homer calls the "Department of Missing Babies" after losing Maggie, the hold music is a newly recorded version of the song, by Peter Beckett and J.C. Crowley. This song was sung by Hank Hill and Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the Point After Lounge in the "Church Hopping" episode of King of the Hill. The song was sung by Steve Smith in the American Dad episode, "The Unbrave One". On a May 2014 episode of General Hospital, precocious Spencer Cassadine attempted to woo back Emma Scorpio-Drake by hiring Player to perform the song at the Nurses Ball. Spencer's great-grandmother Lesley Webber was supposedly a groupie of the band in the 1970s. In 2016, Peter Beckett performed a parody "Brady Come Back" on The Herd with Colin Cowherd about the return of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady from suspension. On June 21, 2017, rapper Yung Gravy released a single named "Cheryl", which samples "Baby Come Back".
