Jim Croce

Jim Croce was a folk and rock singer/songwriter best known for a string of chart hits in the early ‘70s before his untimely death in 1973. During his lifetime, he scored four Top 40 Billboard chart hits including “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”, his first Number 1. Posthumously, a further four singles landed in the Top 40 including his second Number 1, “Time in a Bottle”. Jim Croce was born in Philadelphia in 1943. His first album Facets was released independently in 1966. Three years later, he and his wife signed with Capitol Records and released the album Jim & Ingrid Croce. The album was not a hit and the duo were dropped from the label. Jim signed with ABC Records and released You Don’t Mess Around with Jim in April, 1972. The album featured two successful singles: “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” and the title track, which reached Number 17 and 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, respectively. You Don’t Mess Around with Jim rose to the Number 1 position on Billboard’s Top 200 Album charts. The album also featured “Time In A Bottle”, which was released as a single after Jim’s death and reached the Number 1 position. In July, 1973, Croce released the album Life and Times, which included the singles “One Less Set Of Footsteps” and his first Number 1, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”. On September 20, 1973, Jim Croce, his musical partner Maury Muehleisen, and four others were killed in a plane crash shortly after a live performance in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The fifth and final studio release completed during his lifetime, I Got a Name, was released on December 1, 1973, eventually landing at the Number Two position on the Top 200. The album’s title track hit Number 10 in the charts, followed by “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” (Number 9), and two more singles. Since Croce’s death, there have been numerous compilations that have included previously unreleased rarities, live recordings and hits. Photographs & Memories: His Greatest Hits, the most popular of his compilations, was originally released in 1974.

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