Jim Croce's 10 Best Songs! Celebrate the Great Singer-Songwriter 50 Years After His Death

On Sept. 20, 1973 beloved singer and songwriter Jim Croce died when the chartered plane he was flying in crashed into a tree during takeoff in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Croce, who wrote the hit songs "Time in a Bottle,” “You Don't Mess Around with Jim” and “Operator,” was just 30.

Five other people also died in the crash as they were on the college tour circuit. They were leaving a gig at Northwestern Louisiana University and flying to another college in Sherman, Texas.

Croce, who performed in coffee houses and in small clubs during the 1960s, supported himself by doing construction work, teaching special education and driving a truck. As Helen Reddy described him when he appeared on her show, he was one of those “overnight successes who only took 12 years to make it.”

The year before his death this South Philly native got a three-album record deal. His single “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” became a No. 1 Billboard hit, sold over a million copies, earned him two Grammy nominations and an appearance on The Tonight Show.

Croce left behind his wife Ingrid, who wrote songs with him early in his career. His son A.J. Croce, turned 2 just eight days after his father’s death. A talented artist, Croce had a gift for writing timeless songs about the human condition with the most potent lyrics.

In "Time In A Bottle" Croce so wisely wrote: “But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.”

How true.

On the 50th anniversary of Jim Croce’s tragic death, here are ten of his best songs.

Jim Croce's 10 Best Songs

“Operator” (That’s Not The Way It Feels)

Croce was inspired to write this masterpiece of a song when he was serving in the Army. He would see around 200 soldiers lining up waiting to use the phone.

“Time In A Bottle”

As Ingrid Croce told SongFacts, "Time In A Bottle" was written in 1971. "So we found out that we were going to have a child, he realized it was his last chance to make it in the music business. He sat down at the table and he wrote 'Time In A Bottle' and 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim,' and at least two or three other songs from the first album and put them all down on one little cassette and sent them out, and that was the beginning of his career, really."

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”

This hit song is the only single to hit No. 1 before Croce died. The song also earned Croce two 1973 Grammy nominations for Pop Male Vocalist and Record of the Year.

"You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”

This song tells the story about a pool shark, "Big" Jim Walker who is causing havoc at a New York City pool hall on 42nd Street.

“I Have To Say I Love You In A Song”

Released on the the album I've Got A Name, this song was Croce's fifth Top 10 hit.

“I’ve Got A Name”

The album I've Got A Name was released Dec. 1, 1973 a couple months after Croce's death on Sept. 20. The title single was released the day after Croce died.

“New York’s Not My Home”

According to his wife Ingrid Croce, in an interview with Songfacts, Croce wrote the song in 1971 after they moved out of New York. "...we had moved into a little farmhouse. We had really no money to live on, we'd left New York very discouraged that our music hadn't made it on our first album," she said. "And so Jim got a job driving a truck and I was doing pottery in a little farmhouse."

“Photographs and Memories”

This song is from Photographs & Memories: His Greatest Hits which was Croce's second posthumous release.

“Lover’s Cross”

"Lover's Cross" was on Croce's album I Got A Name. As Billboard wrote about Croce's artistry, "It is hard to believe one man poured out a fountain of excellent work in barely two years, but this LP offers proof of the greatness of Croce's career and is, in all respects, truly a greatest hits album. They're all worthwhile and this magnificent collection makes one realize just how greatly this man will be missed. The beauty of music, however, is that he will always be heard."

"Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues"

This was the third song released from the album I Got A Name.