His songs are still on the radio, some of them anyway. Oldies stations play only the ones that move fast. I think they’re afraid younger, short-attention span listeners will tune out a love song or a ballad. Not me. Jim Croce only had a big-time career for 18 months or so, but man, did he make an impact.
He’s the guy on the left (above). Those of us who grew up in the pre-MTV days of album cover art would recognize that mustache anywhere! As the title of a Jim Croce album puts it so well, “Photographs and Memories.” That album was released after he died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973: forty years ago. The guy on the right is Maury Muehleisen, not as familiar name or face, but I’ll bet you’ll recognize the guitar riffs and vocal harmonies. He was on that plane too, which crashed shortly after takeoff. Croce and company were leaving one show in Louisiana, enroute to another one in Texas.
“Operator” was one in a nice string of hits Croce and Muehleisen recorded and performed in 1972 and 1973. The music was memorable, but so were the words. I have so many favorite Croce lines. From “Operator,” I love the way he sings, “Operator, oh let’s forget about this call, there’s no one there I really wanted to talk to. Thank you for your time, oh you’ve been so much more than kind. And you can keep the dime…”
Most oldies stations today pump out his first hit, 1972’s “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” which took us to 42nd Street, where we met Big Jim Walker, that pool-shooting son of a gun. A year later, he went uptempo again with another summertime smash, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” Say those words to anybody who grew up in the 70s, and I guarantee you they’ll come right back with “the baddest man in the whole damn town.” That’s another one you hear in the background a lot these days.
Many of his other hits are not as familiar to today’s listeners. “Like the pine trees lining the winding road, I got a name,” he would sing, painting word pictures.
A few months after his death, his recorded words spoke for so many of us tongue-tied guys: “I know it’s kinda strange. Every time I’m near you, I just run out of things to say. I know you’d understand. Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong, so I’ll have to say I love you…in a song.”
All this and more, recorded and released in about 18 months. These days, the major hit makers might treat us to two big hits in that period of time. Croce was from a different era, when the Beatles, CCR, Elton John and so many others cranked them out, every 3 months or so, year after year. They wrote them, sang them and produced them. No AutoTune, no tricks. It was the real thing.
Everybody I mentioned seemed to be most productive and commercially successful in their 20s. That’s the nature of the business, it’s a young person’s game. They all kept recording, and those who survive still do, but they’re mainly known for their youthful-era hits. We’ll never know if Jim Croce would have given us more musical photographs and memories. Maybe those songs he left us were the best he’d ever record. But something tells me there were more stories to tell, more characters to create, and more heartfelt words we couldn’t bring ourselves to say.
When I posted his most famous song, “Time in a Bottle,” on Facebook on the 40th anniversary of his death, I was touched by a response from Elaine Kirby McEwen, who wrote, “My husband used a (Jim Croce) quote to propose to me. “I’ve looked around enough to know, that you’re the one I want to go through time with.”
I was disappointed that the 40th anniversary of Jim Croce’s death didn’t get much mainstream media attention. There’s a memorial concert here and there, and an observance or two, but on a national scale he’s fading quickly into the fog of obscurity. Sirius XM’s bland 70s music channel (70s on 7) plays his two upbeat songs regularly, but ignores the others. They didn’t even take the time to acknowledge the anniversary of his death on their Facebook page.
That points out a great benefit of our modern-day era, with our mobile devices, iPods and computers that store the songs we love, some even with video. Hard as they may try, the national radio programmers and consultants haven’t taken Jim Croce’s music away from me. I am proud to share a little of it with you today, and hope you’ll find more when you get a chance.
David,
Great article. As a side note you mentioned Sirius only playing a couple of his tunes. This is one of the issues I have with Sirius. They seem to play only the “best of the best” I recently started creating my own Pandora stations and have been very surprised at just how much you will hear from a given artist’s catalog if you create a station for that artist. They will go deep into their work and even play some live or rare cuts that you very seldom hear.
Jim Croce was indeed a great voice and his music is haunting and a reminder of a simpler time and in some ways a happier one too. I miss his music and when I hear one of his songs the volume goes up and I enjoy singing along. Thanks for the memories.
Thanks for this article, David. Jim Croce’s music has always touched some place deep in my soul that very few others have. The death of such a talent has always saddened me. He may be gone, but as far as I am concerned, he’s never been forgotten!
Jim will always be in my heart and I am shure his music will last forever. He will never be forgotten, even here in Germany. Regards. Alex (Munich)
My band did a Jim Croce Tribute concert in Jim’s old high school (Upper Darby), in their Performing Arts Center, on the 40th anniversary. My husband sings his songs beautifully (I play a little guitar with him). We had a very enthusiastic packed house – and the show included a heartfelt song by Terry Cashman, as well as stories told by family members. He has many many fans still out there, who appreciate his talents. There is no comparison in today’s music. Jim and Maury were unique in so many ways. Thanks for writing this article and helping spread the word.
It is folks like you that keep JIM CROCE in todays mainstream. I lived only a few streets from where Jim grew up and we’re both alumni of Upper Darby High School where, as the above post from Margaret Gletherow stated, Jim Croce/Maury Muehleisen’s 40th Anniversary Tribute Event took place. What she failed to mention was that her and husband Ron Gletherow’s band name “Maggie’s Guitar” and they are the premiere Jim Croce band and they do the boys with justice & feeling. To comment on air play, such as Sirius, I think that the blame might be the age’s of radio’s ‘Music Director’ and the lack of Rock music history. I too graced the airwaves in the 70’s and would love to have a personal connection in that business again just to correct this real problem and for the fun again. Thanks Dave
This is such a great article and thanks to all who commented. The show preformed at udh was excellent. What a great group of people that will always remember. It is ashamed that xm radio doesn’t play more of their songs.what a masterpiece of music Jim and Maury left for us to enjoy. Will always be my favorite. We still remember always!