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James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American Folk music and rock singer-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 guitarist Maury 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 album Life 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 Croce, continued to write and record after his death. Their son, A. J. Croce, became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s.
Croce grew up in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia, and attended Upper Darby High School, where he graduated in 1960. Croce then attended Malvern Preparatory School for a year before enrolling at Villanova University, where he majored in psychology and minored in German. 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. Alt URL Croce was also a student disc jockey at WKVU, which has since become WXVU.Villanova Parents' Connection newsletter (Spring 2007). In 1965, he graduated from Villanova with a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies degree.
Croce released his first album, Facets, in 1966, with 500 copies pressed. The album had been financed with a $500 ($ in dollars) 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. However, the album proved to be a success, with every copy sold.
From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Croce and his wife performed as a duo. Initially, their performances included songs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie, but they eventually began writing their own music. During this time, Croce secured his first long-term gig, at a suburban bar and steakhouse in Lima, 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 producer Tommy West, a fellow Villanova alumnus, to move to New York City. The couple spent time in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and recorded their first album with Capitol Records. According to Ingrid, over the next two years, they drove more than , Croce's Restaurant – San Diego. Croces.com. Retrieved July 11, 2011. playing small clubs and concerts on the college concert circuit to promote their album Jim & 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 in Lyndell, where he played for $25 a night ($ in dollars). To earn additional money, Croce took odd jobs such as truck driver, construction work, and teaching guitar while continuing to write songs, often about the characters whom he would meet at local bars and and his experiences at work. These songs included "Big Wheel" and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues."
In 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist-guitarist and singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen through producer Joe Salviuolo, a friend of Croce's since college. Salviuolo had met Muehleisen when he was teaching at Rowan University in New Jersey and brought Croce and Muehleisen together at the production office of Tommy West and Terry 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.
When his wife became pregnant, Croce became more determined to make music his profession. Croce sent a cassette tape 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 with ABC Records, releasing two 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" all received airplay. That same year, the Croce family moved to San Diego. Croce began appearing on television, including on American Bandstandamericanbandstandperformerlist on August 12, his national debut, The Tonight Showjohnnycarson.com on August 14, and The 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, and Dublin and receiving encouraging reviews. Croce made television appearances on The Midnight Special, which he cohosted on June 15, and The Helen Reddy Show on July 19. Croce's biggest single, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
Ep 33 - The Midnight Special Episode September 14, 1973 airing of The 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 on The Old Grey Whistle Test, on which they sang "Lover's Cross" and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues" from their upcoming album I 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 his Life and Times tour ended. 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.Everitt, Richard: Falling Stars: Air Crashes that Filled Rock and Roll Heaven (2004)
An investigation by the National 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 severe coronary artery disease and had run to the airport from a motel. He had an ATP certificate, 14,290 hours' total flight time, and 2,190 hours in the Beech 18 type airplane.
Croce was buried at Haym Salomon Memorial Park in Frazer, Pennsylvania.
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.Joel Whitburn. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 7th ed., Billboard Books, 2000, p. 159. After the single finished its two-week run at the top in early January 1974, the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim became No. 1 for five weeks.Joel Whitburn. Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, Record Research Inc., 1985, p. 88, 505. Seven weeks after its release, I Got a Name reached No. 2, behind You Don't Mess Around with Jim.
A greatest hits album titled Photographs & Memories was released in 1974. Later posthumous releases have included , The Faces I've Been, Jim Croce: Classic Hits, Down the Highway, and DVD and CD releases of his television performances. In 1990, Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Queen's 1974 album Sheer 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 title Time in a Bottle. In 2012 she co-wrote with Jimmy Rock the memoir I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story.
In 1985, Ingrid opened Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar, a project she had jokingly discussed with Croce, in the historic Gaslamp 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 the Bankers Hill neighborhood near Balboa Park. She closed it in January 2016.
In 2022, a Pennsylvania Historical Marker honoring Croce was installed outside his farmhouse in Lyndell.
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