The album yielded three hits: the title track, “ Operator (That’s Not the Way it Feels)” and “ Time in a Bottle.” The album launched Croce on the national stage as a formidable artist who combined relatability and sincerity with remarkable artistic craftsmanship and an unmistakable voice. It featured striking original songs – directly expressed, richly human lyrics matched to pitch-perfect musical structures – all performed by Croce with accompaniment from his new partner, master guitarist and harmony singer Muehleisen. The album was released in April 1972 on the ABC label. Eventually his management secured a recording deal, and Croce entered a New York City studio, the Hit Factory, to make his third album, “ You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” Jim Croce worked various blue-collar jobs to support his family while trying to advance a solo music career. That album, simply titled “ Croce,” showcased both Croces as evocative songwriters. In 1969, Jim and Ingrid Croce, who toured as a duo, made an album together for Capitol Records. In 1966, he recorded the solo album “ Facets,” which revealed to the few people who heard it that Croce was a compelling singing storyteller who could personalize songs composed by others. Croce, like all those musicians, left the world abruptly and far too early, yet his music endured, and fans grew to view him as having achieved a measure of immortality.Ĭroce was an Italian American from Philadelphia and a participant in the 1960s folk music revival. The crash also killed Croce’s performing partner Maury Muehleisen, comedian George Stevens, manager Kenneth Cortese and tour manager Dennis Rast.Īircraft crashes have claimed the lives of other popular music acts before and after Croce: Glenn Miller, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Jim Reeves, Otis Redding, The Bar-Kays, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Randy Rhoads, Ricky Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Denver and Aaliyah. In her 2012 book “ I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story,” Croce’s wife, Ingrid, recounted that night: a pilot, Robert Elliott, with a heart condition helming a small Beechcraft E18S a flight trajectory possibly not accounting for some tall pecan trees a phone call bearing horrible news. Many people had stayed home to watch the televised broadcast of the “ Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. ![]() ![]() Croce had performed for an enthusiastic if small audience. ![]() He had been in Natchitoches to play that evening at Northwestern State University, making up for a concert canceled the previous spring because he had a sore throat. He was 30 years old.Ĭroce was a chart-topping musician who had performed over 300 concerts in the previous year. 20, 1973, singer-songwriter Jim Croce died when his chartered plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
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