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Singer and songwriter Jim Croce is known for his folk rock and his fantastic ’70s mustache. Croce explored the sounds of blues rock, rock and roll, and country, but his best-known music takes a mellow folk feel.
Released in 1972, his album You Don’t Mess Around With Jim contains mostly slow and sentimental songs, but uses some rocking beats as well. The album and singles charted well, with the album reaching No. 1 on the US Billboard 200. In 1973, the single “Time in a Bottle” reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Easy Listening charts.
The title track has a simple drum beat and acoustic guitar as well as a funky piano. Now, this song is not an ego-boost for Jim Croce himself; the main character is a man named Jim Walker.
The catchy chorus of “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape / You don’t spit into the wind / You don’t pull the mask off that ol’ Lone Ranger / And you don’t mess around with Jim” will have listeners tapping their foot to the beat.
During the song, Jim faces his enemy, Slim McCoy, and loses. And by the end of the song, the chorus is replaced by “You don’t mess around with Slim.”
“Walkin’ Back to Georgia” is a pretty love song about a woman who understands a man’s life struggles. Lyrics like “I’m walkin’ back to Georgia / She’s the only one who knows / How it feels when you lose a dream / And how it feels when you dream alone” make it easy to sympathize with Croce and his journey to become a songwriter. This is a mellow song in which it is easy to harmonize with Croce’s humming.
“Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” is a spiteful but pretty ballad about an ex-lover moving on to the narrator’s best friend. It follows the storyline of the narrator calling an in to the operator but ultimately deciding against placing his call.
“Photographs and Memories” is a song that features Croce’s voice and an acoustic guitar as well as a string background part. The sorrowful song is just over two minutes long, and it reflects on time spent with a loved one. Croce mostly wrote very personal songs. He was a family man who cared deeply about his wife, singer and songwriting partner Ingrid Croce, and son, singer A.J. Croce.
The love ballad “Time In A Bottle,” probably his best-known song, was released as a single after Croce’s death. Croce passed away at only 30 years old in a plane crash in 1973 that also claimed the lives of five others, shortly after his son was born.
“Time In A Bottle” has sort of become a track of remembrance for Croce and his legacy as well. The song has beautiful lyrics like “If I could make days last forever / If words could make wishes come true / I’d save every day like a treasure and then / Again, I would spend them with you.”
Although his music career was short, Croce’s powerful life story, songwriting, and voice are still influential today.
