One my old time favorite songs from Jim Croce, was the song called, “Time in a Bottle.”
Today on “Days to Remember” we celebrate how the recording artist Jim Croce left us a legacy of beautiful songs to remember, because today on September 20th 1973 Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash on his way to Sherman Texas for a concert.
It’s not surprising how safe we think planes are but in reality a lot famous people besides Jim Croce was killed in plane accident.
In 1962, Tom Slick a Texas millionaire who financed expeditions in search of Big Foot was killed in an airplane crash that some say was under suspicious circumstances. Perhaps Big Foot was driving the plane who knows?
Recording Artist as singer Patsy Cline died in plane crash, the plane flew into a storm in 1963 and pilot wasn’t prepared to navigate the plane out of the storm.
In 1959, who can forget how Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, plane crashed shortly after taking off into poor weather conditions? The pilot was not IFR qualified and possibly caused by spatial disorientation, unfamiliarity with the attitude indicator or icing. Valens got to go on the flip of a coin leaving Tommy Allsup behind.
Like the saying goes, “Things usually happen when you least expect it,” regardless how tragic their lives ended, their talent they left behind is still shared by millions today.
Today’s YouTube video clip brought to you by user name Sean Adam is Jim Croce appearing in his own video singing the song, “Time in a Bottle.”
Who was Jim Croce?
Croce was born in South Philadelphia, on January 10th 1943, to James Albert Croce and his wife Flora Mary (née Babucci), both Italian Americans.
Croce took a strong interest in music at a young age. At five, he learned to play his first song on the accordion, “Lady of Spain.”
Croce did not take music seriously until he studied at Villanova, where he formed bands and performed at fraternity parties, coffee houses, and universities around Philadelphia, playing “anything that the people wanted to hear: blues, rock, a cappella, railroad music … anything.” Croce’s band was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa, the Middle East, and Yugoslavia.
From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Croce performed with his wife as a duo. At first, their performances included songs by artists such as Ian and Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthrie, but in time they began writing their own music.
The song “Time in a Bottle” had been featured over the opening and closing credits and during a scene in which Desi Arnaz Jr. is opening the You Don’t Mess Around With Jim album in the ABC made-for-television movie She Lives!, which aired on September 12, 1973.
Consequently, three months later, “Time in a Bottle”, originally released on Croce’s first album the year before, hit number one on December 29, 1973, the third posthumous chart-topping song of the rock era following Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and Janis Joplin’s recording of “Me and Bobby McGee”.
As we celebrate today’s day to remember how September 20th 1973 Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash on his way to Sherman Texas for a concert but what a legacy he left behind, as we remember not his death but what his songs meant to us.
Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
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Days to Remember 