Jim Croce Singles: ILXor, could you help me place this POLL?

I have heard of two of these songs before, one of them via critique by Peter David in his CBG column in the 1990s

Just dropping in to vote for "Time in a Bottle" because I've always considered it an emotionally evocative song, to the point where it almost makes me want to cry. It's such a beautiful, wistful song and I've loved it almost all my life.

^^^

the switch to major key for the descending "cuz there never seems to be enough time/to do the things you want to do once you find them" section is like damn, son

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtS4cBjCxhA

"One Less Set of Footsteps" for me.

Now is as good a time as any to post this video of a set from TV. Saw this on Chicago's Soundstage many years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_m6l_pJKaU

Wonderful oeuvre. Operator for me. Never fails to make me tear up. Especially the final "You can keep the dime" line. (Obviously love the thread title).

yeah i've really fallen in love with that song in the past six months or so. it's so heart-on-its-sleeve in its portrayal of a guy not quite admitting how totally broken up and wistful and lost he is. a few years on and having gotten over it a little he might be the protagonist of "still crazy after all these years," but right now it's all too much and life as a twentysomething in the early 70s is proving very confusing. something about the songwriting always surprises me, too; i can never quite remember what line is coming up and how it swings around to the chorus. maybe it's his really conversational delivery, makes it feel like a guy talking more than a song... but then it lands with the incredible evocative hook of "...that it just wasn't real... but that's not the way it feels." poor guy.

it's "I Got A Name" for my. Incredible riff & coda, amazing development, great harmonies, lead vocal right in the pocket...just a spectacular tune

^Agree, and featured in a fine Jeff Bridges car-racing movie.

My best friend has been busy with his kids for the last 20 years, and whenever he has to postpone plans with me, I reflexively say, "We'll get together then, Dad."

"Time In A Bottle" + Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" are some serious dads driving around in their datsuns genre.

^ Can confirm. Dad had a Datsun and 2 8-tracks: Best of Lightfoot (UA Years) & Best of Croce.

Nobody (including me) is gonna vote for the Car Wash Blues, but I wanna say a word in its favour. Similar charming goofy slinkiness to Jug Band Music by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

“no matter how smooth I talked, they wouldn’t listen to the fact that I’s a genius — the man said ‘we got all that we can use’”

My dad preferred "Operator", tbh with you. Though the '70s songs he tended to go for were more along the lines of Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Theme from 'Shaft'" by Isaac Hayes, and I'm pretty sure he didn't like a single Gordon Lightfoot song.

It's too bad there's no "Lover's Cross" on this list. That's another favorite of mine.

Yeah, in hindsight I might have done well to just poll the '74 Greatest Hits, seems like that might be his definitive document.

Thanks for running the poll. Nice to spend some time again with these songs. Voting for Operator.

Operator for me, amazing song

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Been listening to the GH on and off over the past week, and despite the considerable charms of "I Got A Name" and "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," this is so "Operator" for me.

I know "Time in a Bottle" is a big signature AM gold type song but it's never really clicked to me. Feels like a reversion to, like, the first couple Simon & Garfunkel records - the delivery feels somehow more affected and "I'm reading you a poem I wrote" than I get off those others.

But I think I'd probably feel differently if I'd gotten to know it at the time, or grown up with it maybe.

time in a bottle veers a little too much into dan fogelberg territory imo

"the switch to major key for the descending "cuz there never seems to be enough time/to do the things you want to do once you find them" section is like damn, son

― Οὖτις"

^^^ altho i do like this part a lot

"I'll Have to Say I Love You In A Song" for me....

I knew about (and have long owned on vinyl) that early album he made with his wife, but only recently learned he recorded an album even before that, way back in 1966. Anyone heard it? Any good?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

great results. kinda surprised at zero votes for either of the tough-guy brawl story songs, but hard to compete against the brilliant songwriting up at the top there.

"Operator" must be inscrutable for some younger listeners.... do modern mobile phones even have operators? Do landlines even have them anymore? Pay phones are largely a thing of the past too, so no dime to keep (inflation had already driven that up to a quarter by the time I was a kid), but i'm guessing they're well known from old films and TV.

"Time In A Bottle" + Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" are some serious dads driving around in their datsuns genre.

As part of a family with a Datsun in the seventies and early 80s, can confirm. We were all fans, pretty much.

Of Croce, specifcally, nothing against Gordon.

... but that's not the way it feels

finally rolled the dice and picked up a couple of his albums. been spending time with You Don't Mess Around With Jim first. it's really nice... there's definitely filler, but it's charming, warm filler.

also came to the conclusion that paul simon was trying to write a Jim Croce song with "Stranded in a Limousine." the chorus-ending line is VERY similar to those of "Hard Time Losin' Man" and "Rapid Roy." very different arrangement obv, but i can definitely hear Croce opening up a tune with "He was a mean individual / he had a heart like a bone."