He'll Be Back

The Players -- Tony Lee Johnson, Herbert Butler, and Otha Lee Givens -- were a sweet singing trio that sounded similar to the pre-Cuba Gooding Main Ingredient, when the late Don McPherson sang lead. Minit rushed this album onto the streets to capitalize on their R&B hit "He'll Be Back," a tearjerker about a girl lamenting because her fellow is serving in Vietnam. The follow-up, "I'm Glad You Waited," was better but slightly less popular; it was an answer to "He'll Be Back," in which the soldier returns home and thanks his lady for waiting patiently. A remake of the Platters' "I Love You a Thousand Times" doesn't compare to the original. Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" gets a strip-down also, as none of the grit and guts displayed by Sledge is evident on the Players' rendition. The rest of the songs are classic filler; they're all right, but lack fire.