Jim Croce 9/1973

At the age of five, he learned to play his first song, “Lady of Spain,” on the accordion. In 1965, Jim graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University where he was a member of the Villanova Singers and the college’s vocal group, The Coventry Lads. He was also a student disc jockey at campus radio station WKVU-FM.

In 1970, Croce was introduced to a classically trained pianist and guitarist, singer/songwriter Maury Muehleisen, from Trenton, New Jersey. Initially, Jim backed Maury on guitar at their gigs but their roles reversed in time, with Muehleisen now playing lead guitar to Croce’s singing.

Jim signed a three project deal in the early ‘70s with ABC Records, and released the albums “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” and “Life and Times.” The singles “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” and “Time in a Bottle” — written for A.J., his then-unborn son — all received extensive radio airplay. Jim’s biggest single, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” reached No. 1 in July 1973 on the Billboard charts.

When his career started to pick up, Croce began touring the country with Muehleisen, performing live in various venues including in large coffee houses, on college campuses and at folk festivals. However, Jim’s finances were in trouble — the record company had fronted him the money to record his first album — but much of the record sales he had earned went to pay back the advance.

So in early 1973, Croce and Muehleisen traveled to Europe to promote the album — and make some needed money — playing to positive reviews in London, Paris and Amsterdam. After returning to the States, Jim began a string of television appearances that included his national TV debut on “American Bandstand,” “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” “The Dick Cavett Show,” NBC’s newly launched late-night music show “The Midnight Special” (which Jim co-hosted), and “The Helen Reddy Show.”

In late summer, Croce and Muehleisen visited London again and performed on one of the U.K.’s top music programs, “The Old Grey Whistle Test.” But in the midst of all of this new found success, Jim was beginning to burn out. Extensive touring had earned him rave reviews throughout the U.S. and Europe, but it had also prevented him from spending time with his wife and their two-year-old son.

At the same time while traveling on his “Life and Times Tour,” on open dates Croce would also work on his next album, I Got a Name, which was scheduled to be released by the end of the year. The South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, native had wrapped up recording sessions and was nearing the end of his tour when tragedy struck on September 20, 1973.

After performing at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Jim boarded a small chartered plane to travel to his next show in Sherman, Texas. Sadly, on takeoff the aircraft only traveled a few yards past the end of the runway. In what was later described by officials as solely pilot error, Croce’s Beechcraft failed to clear a pecan tree while attempting to ascend, and crashed. All six people aboard were killed, including Jim, Maury, comedian George Stevens (the show’s opening act), Kenneth Cortose (Jim’s manager and booking agent), Dennis Rast (the road manager), and pilot Robert Elliott.

Following JIm Croce’s death at the age of 30, public interest in his music exploded. The single “I Got a Name” was released as planned on September 21st — the day after Jim had died — and became a top 10 hit. “Time in a Bottle” was re-released after being used in a TV movie, and by the end of 1973 had topped the charts (along with its album, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, that also shot to No. 1). It became only the third posthumous No. 1 single in the rock era, following Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Jim Croce’s story is a sad one, a life lived halfway and broken at the moment of the turning point for success. Turns out you can’t put time in a bottle. In the mid-60’s he met his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson, whom he married  and with whom he recorded an album, which however was not successful.

Disappointed by the failure, they resumed a normal life, became parents and Jim made ends meet by working as a truck driver and a bricklayer. His passion for music did not abandon him and the opportunity of a lifetime came with a contract with ABC Record in 1972.

In the same year of the signing, the album “You don’t mess around with Jim” was released. Encouraged by his success, Jim threw himself into his work and the following year he released his new LP “Life and Times” which sold even more, climbing the charts to 7th place. It was 1973 and the concert halls were always sold out on the tour organized for him; Jim could finally enjoy some of his well-deserved success, but on September 20, the plane carrying Jim Croce and guitarist Maury Muehleisen crashed during take-off.

The investigations found that the aircraft had not gained enough altitude and crashed into a pecan tree, the only tree for hundreds of yards around the runway. A few days later the album “I got a name” was released, immediately number 2 in the US charts and Gold Record.

A week after Jim’s death, Ingrid Croce received a letter from her husband that he had mailed to her while on tour. In it, Jim sounded weary from his time on the road and expressed a desire to quit the music business and take up other pursuits, possibly to write movie scripts. He said he hoped that type of work wouldn’t take him so far away from his wife and son. In closing he wrote, “Remember, it’s the first 60 years that count and I’ve got 30 to go. I love you.”