Jim Croce | |
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.jpg) Croce in 1972 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1943-01-10)January 10, 1943 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | September 20, 1973(1973-09-20) (aged 30) Natchitoches, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres | |
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| Years active | 1964–1973 |
| Labels | |
Spouse | |
| Website | jimcroce |
James Joseph Croce (/ˈkroʊtʃiː/;[1] January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an Americanfolk and rocksinger-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while he continued to write, record, and perform concerts. After forming a partnership with the songwriter and guitaristMaury Muehleisen in the early 1970s, Croce's fortunes turned. His breakthrough came in 1972, when his third album,You Don't Mess Around with Jim, produced three charting singles, including "Time in a Bottle", which reached number one after Croce died. The follow-up albumLife and Times included the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", Croce's only number-one hit during his lifetime.
On September 20, 1973, Croce, Muehleisen, and four others died in a plane crash, one day before the release of the lead single from Croce's fifth album,I Got a Name, during a period of significant commercial success. His music continued to chart throughout the 1970s following his death. Croce's widow and early songwriting partner,Ingrid, continued to write and record after his death. Their son,A. J. Croce, became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s.
Croce was born on January 10, 1943 (although some sources say 1942),[2][3] inSouth Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to James Albert Croce and Flora Mary (Babusci) Croce, Italian Americans whose parents had emigrated fromTrasacco andBalsorano inAbruzzo.[4]
Croce grew up inUpper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, 7 miles (11 km) west ofPhiladelphia, and attendedUpper Darby High School, where he graduated in 1960. Croce then attendedMalvern Preparatory School for a year before enrolling atVillanova University, where he majored inpsychology and minored in German.[5][6] Croce was a member of the campus singing groups the Villanova Singers and the Villanova Spires. When the Spires performed off campus or made recordings, they were known as The Coventry Lads.[7] Croce was also a student disc jockey at WKVU, which has since becomeWXVU.[8][9][10] In 1965, he graduated from Villanova with a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies degree.
Croce did not take music seriously until he studied at Villanova, where he became a leader of the Villanova Singers,[11] formed bands, and performed atfraternity parties,coffeehouses, and universities around Philadelphia. Croce played "anything that the people wanted to hear: blues, rock,a cappella, railroad music ... anything." His band was chosen for aforeign exchange tour of Africa, the Middle East andYugoslavia. Croce later said, "We just ate what the people ate, lived in the woods, and played our songs. Of course they didn't speak English over there but if you mean what you're singing, people understand." On November 29, 1963, he met his future wife,Ingrid Jacobson, at thePhiladelphia Convention Hall during ahootenanny, where Croce was judging a contest.
Croce released his first album,Facets, in 1966, with 500 copies pressed. The album had been financed with a $500 ($4,846 in 2024 dollars[12]) wedding gift from Croce's parents, who set a condition that the money must be spent to make an album. They hoped that Croce would abandon music after the album failed and use his college education to pursue a more traditional profession.[13] However, the album proved to be a success, with every copy sold.
Croce married Jacobson in 1966 andconverted from Catholicism to Judaism, as Ingrid was Jewish. They were married in atraditional Jewish ceremony.[14] Croce enlisted in theArmy National Guard inNew Jersey that same year to avoid being drafted and deployed toVietnam, and served on active duty for four months, leaving for duty a week after his honeymoon.[15] Croce, who tended to resist authority, endured basic training twice.[16] He said that he would be prepared if "there's ever a war where we have to defend ourselves with mops."
From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Croce and his wife performed as a duo. Initially, their performances included songs by artists such asIan & Sylvia,Gordon Lightfoot,Joan Baez, andArlo Guthrie, but they eventually began writing their own music. During this time, Croce secured his first long-term gig, at a suburban bar andsteakhouse inLima, Pennsylvania, called the Riddle Paddock. Croce's set list covered several genres, including blues, country, rock and roll, and folk.
In 1968, the Croces were encouraged by the record producerTommy West, a fellow Villanova alumnus, to move to New York City. The couple spent time in theKingsbridge section of the Bronx and recorded their first album withCapitol Records. According to Ingrid, over the next two years, they drove more than 300,000 miles (480,000 kilometres),[17] playing small clubs and concerts on the college concert circuit to promote their albumJim & Ingrid Croce.
Becoming disillusioned by the music business and New York, they sold all but one guitar to pay the rent and returned to the Pennsylvania countryside, settling in an old farm inLyndell, where he played for $25 a night ($202 in 2024 dollars[12]). To earn additional money, Croce took odd jobs such asdriving trucks,construction work, and teaching guitar while continuing to write songs, often about the characters whom he would meet at local bars andtruck stops and his experiences at work. These songs included "Big Wheel" and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues."[18]
The Croces eventually returned to Philadelphia and Croce decided to be "serious" about becoming a productive member of society. He said: "I'd worked construction crews, and I'd been a welder while I was in college. But I'd rather do other things than get burned." Croce's determination led to a job at PhiladelphiaR&B AM radio stationWHAT, where he translated commercials into "soul". Croce said: "I'd sell airtime to Bronco's Poolroom and then write the spot: 'You wanna be cool, and you wanna shoot pool ...dig it.'"
In 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist-guitarist and singer-songwriterMaury Muehleisen through producer Joe Salviuolo, a friend of Croce's since college. Salviuolo had met Muehleisen when he was teaching atGlassboro State College in New Jersey and brought Croce and Muehleisen together at the production office ofTommy West andTerry Cashman in New York City. Initially, Croce backed Muehleisen on guitar, but their roles gradually reversed, with Muehleisen adding a lead guitar to Croce's music.[citation needed]
When his wife became pregnant, Croce became more determined to make music his profession. Croce sent acassette of his new songs to a friend and producer in New York City in the hope that he could secure a record deal. After their son,Adrian James (A.J.), was born in September 1971, Ingrid stayed at home while Croce toured to promote his music.
In 1972, Croce signed a three-record contract withABC Records, releasing two albums,You Don't Mess Around with Jim andLife and Times. The singles "You Don't Mess Around with Jim", "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)", and "Time in a Bottle" all received airplay. That same year, the Croce family moved toSan Diego. Croce began appearing on television, including onAmerican Bandstand[19] on August 12, his national debut,The Tonight Show[20] on August 14, andThe Dick Cavett Show on September 20 and 21.
Croce began touring the United States with Muehleisen, performing in large coffeehouses, on college campuses, and at folk festivals. However, his financial situation remained precarious. The record company had fronted him the money to record, and much of his earnings went to repay the advance. In February 1973, Croce and Muehleisen traveled to Europe, performing in London, Paris,Amsterdam,Monte Carlo, Zurich, andDublin and receiving encouraging reviews. Croce made television appearances onThe Midnight Special, which he cohosted on June 15, andTheHelen Reddy Show on July 19. Croce's biggest single, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", reached No. 1 on the American charts in July. He appeared on an September 14, 1973[21] airing ofThe Midnight Special where he received a gold record and indicated he would be hosting the show on the November 2, 1973 broadcast.
From July 16 through August 4, Croce and Muehleisen returned to London and performed onThe Old Grey Whistle Test, on which they sang "Lover's Cross" and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues" from their upcoming albumI Got a Name. Croce finished recording the album just a week before his death. While on tour, Croce grew increasingly homesick and decided to take a break from music and settle with Ingrid and A.J. when hisLife and Times tour ended.[22][23] In a letter to Ingrid that arrived after his death, Croce told her that he had decided to quit music and wanted to write short stories and movie scripts as a career and withdraw from public life.[5][24]
On the evening of September 20, 1973, during Croce'sLife and Times tour, which had been scheduled for 45 dates, and the day before his single "I Got a Name" was released, Croce, at the age of 30, and five others were killed when their charteredBeechcraft E18S crashed shortly after takeoff from theNatchitoches Regional Airport inNatchitoches, Louisiana.[25] Others killed in the crash were the pilot, Robert N. Elliott; Croce's bandmateMaury Muehleisen; manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese; road manager Dennis Rast; and George Stevens, a comedian.[26][27][28] The crash occurred an hour after Croce had finished a concert atNorthwestern State University'sPrather Coliseum in Natchitoches. They were headed forSherman, Texas, for a concert atAustin College.
An investigation by theNational Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified the probable cause as the pilot's failure to see obstructions because of physical impairment and fog that had reduced his vision. The 57-year-old pilot suffered from severecoronary artery disease and had run three miles (4.8 km) to the airport from a motel. He had anATP certificate, 14,290 hours' total flight time, and 2,190 hours in theBeech 18 type airplane.[29]
Croce was buried atHaym Salomon Memorial Park inFrazer, Pennsylvania.[30]
The albumI Got a Name was released on December 1, 1973.[31] Theposthumous release included three hits: "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues", "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" and thetitle song, which had been used as the theme to the filmThe Last American Hero, released two months prior to his death. "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" reached No. 9 on the singles chart.
While ABC had not originally released the song "Time in a Bottle" as a single, Croce's untimely death lent its lyrics, dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time, an additional resonance. The song subsequently received a large amount of airplay as an album track, and demand for a single release built. When it was eventually issued as one, it became Croce's second and final No. 1 hit.[32] After the single finished its two-week run at the top in early January 1974, the albumYou Don't Mess Around with Jim became No. 1 for five weeks.[33] Seven weeks after its release,I Got a Name reached No. 2, behindYou Don't Mess Around with Jim.[34][35]
A greatest hits album titledPhotographs & Memories was released in 1974. Later posthumous releases have includedHome Recordings: Americana,The Faces I've Been,Jim Croce: Classic Hits,Down the Highway,Have You Heard: Jim Croce Live and DVD and CD releases of his television performances. In 1990, Croce was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame.[36]
Queen's 1974 albumSheer Heart Attack included the song "Bring Back That Leroy Brown"; its title and lyrics reference Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".
In 1996 Ingrid Croce published the cookbook "Thyme In a Bottle", a play on the titleTime in a Bottle.[37] In 2012 she co-wrote with Jimmy Rock the memoirI Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story.[38]
In 1985, Ingrid opened Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar, a project she had jokingly discussed with Croce, in the historicGaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego. She owned and managed it until its closure on December 31, 2013. In December 2013, Ingrid Croce opened another restaurant, Croce's Park West, on 5th Avenue in theBankers Hill neighborhood nearBalboa Park. She closed it in January 2016.[39][40]
In 2022, aPennsylvania Historical Marker honoring Croce was installed outside his farmhouse inLyndell.[41][42]
… singer Jim Croce in 1943
