Jim Croce

My favorite Croce performance

I love this one

Being born in 1969, I was a little younger than his primary audience, but I've always known his music. The thing is, I never knew who sang these songs, like Time in a Bottle. It honestly wasn't until the past couple of years in fact that I really know Jim Croce's name.

I'm still not quite sure how to pronounce his last name - will go look that up now.

Quicksilver is also a fan, r1.

I remember this being dazzling on the big screen and me being surprised by a Jim Croce song in an X-Men movie.

[quote]I'm still not quite sure how to pronounce his last name

CROW-chee

Croce, gay vibes? No.

LOVE "I Got A Name"

Supposedly he's hung like a horse.

r7 Link? Proof?

I love Jim Croce. I find it fascinating and truly American that a pureblood Italian man sang the most whitebread, Anglo-American folk music with such a clear tone and finesse. You would think by his appearance he would be a combination of Mario and The Godfather, but he sings even clearer than earlier colleagues like Gordon Lightfoot.

I love his music, yet I find his songwriting quirky and rather chintzy compared to Gordon or James Taylor. He’s probably more closely comparable to Dan Fogelberg in today’s listening preferences. He was one of the best, but I feel an incompleteness because of his early death. Listening to Jim is listening to an unfinished musical story. JT could die tomorrow with a complete musical career.

For R8

Fantastic guitar work, especially with his regular co-performer, Maury Muehleisen. Muehiesen is nearly forgotten these days, he died in the same plane crash.

OP, I am a fan. I was born in 1970 but mostly despised 80s music in the 80s, so I turned to the music of the 70s, which was much more for me. And I discovered Jim Croce in 1983, about 10 years after he was popular.

I still love Jim and his whole catalog.

I have always wanted to be a part of Generation Jones (preferred the whole culture and especially the music) but born too late.

I'm meaner than a junkyard dog

It bothers me that neither a pine tree, the bird, nor the croaking toad does, in fact, typically have a name.

His son AJ is nice-looking.

[quote]Big Bad Leroy Brown.

Oh, DEAR.

He's kinda hot in an ugly sort of way.

Guys, honestly, if you want a really fine Croce song, isn't it Operator? Such a sad song, but really beautiful. "she's living in L.A. / with my best old ex-friend Ray" - "there's something in my eyes / happens every time" - "thank you for your time / oh you've been so much more than kind / you can keep the dime"

Gen Z: "What's an operator? And what does this have to do with a dime?"

r10 That's Dr. Hook, not Jim Croce

[quote] Supposedly he's hung like a horse.

Well he might have been, when he was alive. He hasn't been for a while.

Jim’s huge cock was well-known in Philly.

R10, this can't be real. It looks like some kind of photoshopped nonsense.

And I’m gonna go there free

He was quite popular and it was a shock when he suddenly died in a plane crash.

Female friend who knew him. "The speculation about his being gay is complete bullshit."

r23 see r20

I knew a lesbian once and, to this day, I insist the song was written about her.

Frank Sinatra covered Bad, Bad Leroy Brown according to the wiki article.

In the 80s there was a rumor that Leon Redbone was actually Jim Croce. His face was disfigured in the plane crash which is why he wore a hat and sunglasses.

He was great. Had he lived he was planning to leave the music business anyway. He was paid almost nothing for all those hits.

For r19.

Muppets’ version of Time in a Bottle:

[quote]I find it fascinating and truly American that a pureblood Italian man

Odd statement. He was American born and bred.

[quote]I find it fascinating and truly American that a pureblood Italian man sang the most whitebread, Anglo-American folk music with such a clear tone and finesse.

Why do you find this fascinating? He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and was part of the folk music scene in Philadelphia and New York.

Are you also fascinated that Barbra Streisand wasn't singing in the Yiddish Theater instead of doing standards and pop songs?

[quote]R15 His son AJ is nice-looking.

Rough beginning, though:

[quote]When he was four years old, he was temporarily blinded as a result of abuse from his mother's boyfriend. He was hospitalized for six months and was totally blind in both eyes for six years.

And this:

[quote]In 2018, his wife, Marlo Gordon Croce, died of a rare and sudden heart virus while he was in the midst of his own health scare. A.J. was left a single father to two children.

Damn. Poor guy. (And his mom and her boyfriend were evil.)

Wow, that family seems to have lots of bad luck.

It's hard to believe he was only 30 when he died.

He looked at least 40.

R38 too true! Part of the cause was general styling trends in the 70s. Tons of guys were rocking huge bushy mustaches and longer, unshaped manes. This looked good on some guys, but it really aged a lot of men in their face. TV performances (like some of these clips) were filmed under bright stage lights, likely on a lower-quality tape. Faces looked oily, you could see every imperfection & pore.

Jim had a natural, cute smile. You just couldn't see most of it under that mustache.

That's definitely Jim Croce at R10.

I was a freshman in HS when he died. Some of the kids in my class REALLY took it hard. 'I've got a Name' had been released almost to the day of his death and the lyrics were quite poignant:

'I got a name, I got a name And I carry it with me like my daddy did But I'm living the dream that he kept hid Moving me down the highway Rolling me down the highway Moving ahead so life won't pass me by'

We used to have a troll that thought Italians were not white. Maybe R9 is the same troll.

R7 I believe it. He looks like he had a fat Italian sausage.

Here's an interview of AJ Croce from CBS Sunday Morning (about 2 years ago). Now a musician himself, he occasionally performs a few of his father's songs with his band:

Meh.....

Nobody covers "Time in a Bottle" like Maureen McCormick.

Jim comes from a time when men actually looked like men, not the prepubescent pussies we have today.

Here's Lena Horne opening her one-woman Broadway show in 1982 with I Got A Name. SO glad I saw it in person.

AJ does a Croce on Croce tour. He’s very talented. He’s close to his mother and doesn’t blame her for what happens to him as a kid as she was being abused herself.

You're right R46. I agree. No one covers it like Maureen. Do with that what you will.

I used to get him and Harry Chapin confused. Another too young to die singer.

Harry Chapin was great too. Taxi, W.O.L.D, Cats in the Cradle, a lot of other good ones.

One of my all-time favorites. I was shocked when he died in that plane crash. I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news. He had a uniquely beautiful voice, plus he was a good composer. I thought he was oddly beautiful to look at. I still miss him. He would have gone far in the entertainment industry. Talent such as he possessed doesn't happen very often.

Photographs and Memories is my favorite.

I was a little kid in that era and I thought men with his style of hair and features looked like werewolves and Draculas.

He was before my time but my dad loved him.

Would love some of that Croce meat.

Me too, R54

Believe it or not him and Helen Reddy were besties.

[quote]He’s close to his mother and doesn’t blame her for what happens to him as a kid as she was being abused herself.

I blame her. An adult staying in an abusive relationship is sad, but it's voluntary. A kid doesn't have a choice in the matter. She, as the parent, was supposed to protect her 4-year-old from her abusive boyfriend by getting him out of there at the first sign of trouble. What a horrible situation for a little kid...being abused and then *blinded* by an adult his mom chose to stay in a relationship with?!! Unreal.

(And, of course I also blame the boyfriend...that's why I called him evil earlier. But the mom was responsible for protecting her kid. Living with an abusive adult is a voluntary situation and you shouldn't do it when you have a kid.)

You can tell Jim had some big low hangers.