The group disbanded again in 1970. After again reforming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, trombonist Marvin Pierce, and keyboardist Walter "Junie" Morrison, the Players had a minor hit on the Detroit-based Westbound label in 1971 with "Pain," which reached the Billboard R&B Top 40. The band signed with Mercury Records in 1974; by this time their lineup had changed again, with keyboardist Billy Beck instead of Morrison and Jimmy "Diamond" Williams on drums instead of Webster. Bonner sang lead vocals on most of the band's hits. Pain (1971) and Pleasure (1972) are often mentioned as band's best pre-Mercury albums. Music on those albums concentrates often on funky jamming featuring numerous instrumental solos. On later albums they started to write more slow ballads.

The band's first big hit was "Funky Worm", which hit #1 on the Billboard R&B Charts and made the pop Top 15 in May 1973. The band had seven more Top 40 hits between 1973 and 1976, including the smashes "Fire" (#1 on both the R&B and pop charts for two weeks and one week respectively in February 1975) and "Love Rollercoaster" (#1 on both the R&B and pop charts for 1 week in January 1976). The group's last top hit was "Who'd She Coo" a #1 R&B hit in August 1976.

For the next two decades the Ohio Players jumped to multiple labels and had minor hits, the biggest of which was a cover of Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness," and continued, in one form of another, touring around the world.

Clarence Satchell died in 1995 and Ralph Middleton died a year later.  A form of the group continues to play, especially around the Midwestern US, and most recently released the album Trespassin'  in 2004.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikepedia article Ohio Players