This past Wednesday (September 20th) marked the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that took Jim Croce from us.
I was a MAJOR Croce fan, right from the start … and was fortunate enough to see him perform four times during his brief moment in the spotlight … everywhere from a small, half-empty club with a two drink minimum (The Quiet Knight), just weeks after his first album was released … (I ran out and bought it the very next day!) … to a headlining spot at The Arie Crown Theater … to coveted (and next to impossible to get) pavilion seats at Ravinia, shortly before that fateful day he left us.
Croce’s career was brief … but in just fifteen short months, he placed five songs in The Top 40, including the #1 Hit “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” Two months after his death, a release of “Time In A Bottle” from his first album (by then, he had three!) also topped all three of the national charts.
Croce was a true one-of-a-kind performer … there was absolutely no one else
like him … and he connected with his audience in a down-home, folksy sort of
way … the man had the uncanny ability to make you laugh and then make you cry, all in the matter of just a few minutes.
He had this magnetic personality that allowed him the ability to make you feel, from the very first moment you saw him, that the two of you had already been friends for life ... and that he was there sharing his lifetime of stories just as a means of keeping you up to date with all that had been going on, always singing and speaking directly to you.
Billboard Magazine ran a beautiful tribute to Jim Croce and his music, noting that he has had the most successful posthumous releases of any artist up to that time. (In fact, only Jim Croce, Otis Redding and Janis Joplin scored #1 Hits AFTER they were gone … and of those three, Croce was the one who ALSO hit #1 while he was still alive!)
More here ... and well worth reading ... https://www.billboard.com/music/features/jim-croce-death-plane-crash-50-years-ago-posthumous-sales-boom-1235414405/#recipient_hashed=fa7e92da6f6e66bffcf0bcbf863670c6eb37d7159eb4d0ea1e44fecd5ec87eeb&recipient_salt=3a1d6b09af3b92ad7e38f8327cf18febeb049fd1c9a251b66957a07d9375735c
Ultimate Classic Rock also did a tribute … and published a story about a letter Jim had written to his wife Ingrid from the road. It’s a story I’d never heard told before and quite a touching one.
According to UCR, a week after his death, Croce's widow Ingrid received a letter that he had mailed to her while out on tour. In it, a weary Croce expresses a desire to quit the music business and take up other pursuits including movie scripts and short stories that wouldn’t take him so far from family. Sadly telling, Jim closed the letter by saying “Remember, it’s the first 60 years that count and I’ve got 30 to go. I love you.”
[You can read the full text of Croce’s letter here: https://www.kpcc.org/programs/take-two/2012/10/08/28748/new-book-looks-at-singer-songwriter-jim-croces-too/]
Long-time Forgotten Hits Reader and Contributor Bill Hengels recorded a concert that Croce gave at Harper College here in Chicago … and many years later, he was able to sell those tapes to Jim’s widow, who had them released as a live album. (FH was the first to break the story back in 2006.) Several of those tracks have appeared on various compilation tributes ever since. (Sadly, we lost Bill a few years back, too … and I miss him … but it was a major accomplishment to be able to share these tracks with the rest of the world.)
I remember EXACTLY where I was when I heard the news about Jim Croce’s plane crash. (It was a restaurant called Mickey’s … long since gone … at the corner of Harlem and Ogden Avenues in beautiful downtown Berwyn.) I was sitting there in a large booth with a bunch of friends when our waitress brought us the news. I was devastated. I no longer felt like going out to have a good time … it cut me deep.
Jim Croce made his mark with his unique brand of music ... and the fact is, you don’t mess around with Jim … he had a name … and it’s just as relevant today … his music truly IS like capturing time in a bottle … and I’ve never grown tired of it. (And I will tell you that some of his album tracks are better than his singles!)
In 2009 we received an email from Mary Muehleisen, Maury’s sister, who had seen some of our tributes to both Jim and Maury. (Maury was Jim Croce’s long-time right-hand man, playing all of the guitar fills that accompanied all of his tracks. He, too, perished on that plane crash that night in 1973.)
We miss you, Jim. Fifty years … wow! Where DOES the time go??? But we will never forget you ... and appreciate what you shared with us during that brief time you were here. (kk)
