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Jim Croce

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Jim Croce

James Joseph Croce, pronounced (KRŌCH-ē) (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973), popularly known as Jim Croce, was an American singer-songwriter.

Early life

Croce was born in South Philadelphia. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania in 1960. In 1976, he was the first former student to be added to the Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame. While attending Villanova University (1965 graduate), Croce was a member of the Villanova Singers and Villanova Spires; was a student deejay at WXVU[1]; grew to be interested in becoming a professional musician; and met his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson, at a hootenanny at Convention Hall in Philadelphia, where he was a judge for a contest. When they married, he converted to Judaism.[2]

Early career

During the early 1960s, Croce formed a number of college bands, performed at coffee houses and universities, and later performed with his wife as a duo in the mid-1960s to early 1970s. At first, their performances included songs by Ian and Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthrie, but in time they began writing their own music, such as "Age," "Hey Tomorrow," and "Spin Spin Spin," which later led to Croce's hit songs in the early 1970s.

At the same time, Croce got his first long-term gig at a rural bar and steak house in Lima, Pennsylvania, called the Riddle Paddock. There, over the next few years, Croce developed a very engaging rapport with tough audiences and built his musical repertoire to more than 3,000 songs. His set list included every genre from blues to country to rock 'n roll to folk, with tender love songs and traditional bawdy ballads, always introduced with a story and an impish grin.

In 1968, Jim and Ingrid Croce were encouraged to move to New York City to record their first album with Capitol Records. For the next two years, they drove more than 300,000 miles[citation needed] playing small clubs and concerts on the college concert circuit promoting their album Jim & Ingrid Croce.

Then, disillusioned by the music business and New York City, Croce sold all but one guitar to pay the rent, and they returned to the Pennsylvania countryside where Croce got a job driving trucks and doing construction to pay the bills. He called this his "character development period" and spent a lot of his time sitting in the cab of a truck, composing songs about his buddies and the folks he enjoyed meeting at the local bars and truck stops.

Success

Template:Sound sample box align rightTemplate:Sample box endIn 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist/guitarist, singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen from Trenton, New Jersey through Joe Salviuolo (aka Sal Joseph). Salviuolo was best friends with Jim when they attended Villanova University together, and Salviuolo later discovered Maury when he was teaching at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. Sal, along with Tommy West and Terry Cashman, brought this duo together in the Cashman and West production office in New York City. Initially, Croce backed Muehleisen on guitar at his gigs. But in time, their musical strengths led them each to new heights. Muehleisen's ethereal and inspired guitar leads became the perfect accompaniment to Croce's down-to-earth music.

In 1972, Croce signed to a three-record deal with ABC Records releasing You Don't Mess Around with Jim and Life & Times in the same year. The singles "You Don't Mess Around with Jim," "Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)," and "Time In A Bottle" (written for his newborn son, A. J. Croce) helped the former album reach #1 on the charts in 1974. Croce's biggest single, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," hit #1 on the U.S. charts in the summer of 1973, selling two million copies.

Sudden death

Croce, 30, and Muehleisen, 24, died in a small commercial plane crash on September 20, 1973, one day before his third ABC album, I Got a Name was to be released. The posthumous release included three hits, "I Got A Name," "Workin' At The Car Wash Blues" and "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song."

Croce had just completed a concert in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and was flying to Sherman, Texas. The pilot and all passengers (Croce, Muehleisen, and George Stevens, the comic who was the show's warm up act) were killed instantly at 10:45 PM EST on September 20, 1973, less than an hour after the end of their last concert. Upon takeoff, the plane did not gain enough altitude to clear an area of large pecan trees at the end of the runway. The official report from the NTSB[3] hints that the charter pilot, Robert Newton Elliott, who had severe coronary artery disease and had run a portion of the 3 miles to the airport from a motel, may have suffered a heart attack causing him to crash into the trees on a clear runway with excellent visibility. A later investigation placed sole blame for the accident on pilot error.

Croce was laid to rest in the Philadelphia area, even though he had recently relocated to San Diego. Family, friends, and fans were stunned to learn of the premature death of the two musicians.

News of the premature deaths of the duo sparked a massive interest in Jim’s first two albums – “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Life and Times” - as well as the “I Got A Name” single, which was released later that same week. This was followed closely by the release of the album of the same title. Sales soared and resulted in three gold records. A “Greatest Hits” package released in 1974 also proved to be extraordinarily popular. The catalogue became a staple of radio play, turntables, cassettes, and CDs for years, and is still receiving significant airplay in the first decade of the 21st century.

Musical legacy

In 1985, Ingrid Croce opened "Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar", located in the historic Gaslamp District in San Diego, California, as a tribute to her late husband. In 1990, Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Since then, they have released Jim Croce Home Recordings, Facets, Jim Croce: Classic Hits, and the first ever DVD of Jim's television performances on "Have You Heard – Jim Croce Live". The most recent release was in January, 2006--. "Have You Heard - Jim Croce Live", the CD. The two also co-produced a PBS special, with archive footage from the Croce family collection, along with excerpts of the DVD Have You Heard – Jim Croce Live.

Croce is mentioned in Stephen King's You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, a short story about a town populated by late music legends. He is also paid tribute to in The Righteous Brothers song Rock And Roll Heaven.

Gino Vanelli wrote the song "Poor Happy Jimmy" as a tribute to Croce.

Quotes

His personal motto: "If you dig it, do it. If you really dig it, do it twice."

On his roots: "I never really thought of my neighborhood in South Philly as being a neighborhood, it was more a state of mind. For people who aren't familiar with those kind of places, it's a whole different thing. Like 42nd Street in New York City is a state of mind."

Discography

References

  1. ^ Villanova Parents' Connection newsletter (Spring 2007)
  2. ^ http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_jewish_catholics.html
  3. ^ http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=84416&key=0#
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