Jim Croce

James Joseph Croce (/ˈkroʊtʃiː/ KROH-chee; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while he continued to write and record songs as well as perform concerts. After Croce formed a partnership with songwriter and guitarist Maury Muehleisen in the early 1970s, his fortunes turned. Croce's breakthrough came in 1972, when his third album, You Don't Mess Around with Jim, produced three charting singles, including "Time in a Bottle", which reached number one after his death. The follow-up album Life and Times included the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", the only number-one hit Croce had during his lifetime.

On September 20, 1973, Croce, Muehleisen, and four others died in a plane crash, one day before the release of the lead single from Croce's fifth album, I Got a Name, during a period of significant commercial success. His music continued to chart throughout the 1970s following his death. Croce's widow and early songwriting partner, Ingrid Jacobson, continued to write and record after his death while their son, A.J. Croce, became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s.

Croce was born on January 10, 1943 (although some sources say 1942), in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Flora Mary (née Babusci) and James Albert Croce, Italian Americans whose parents had emigrated from Trasacco and Balsorano in Abruzzo, Italy.

Croce grew up in Drexel Hill, Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, 7 miles (11 km) west of Philadelphia, and attended Upper Darby High School, where he graduated in 1960. Croce then attended Malvern Preparatory School for a year before enrolling at Villanova University, where he majored in psychology and minored in German. Croce was a member of the campus singing groups the Villanova Singers and the Villanova Spires. When the Spires performed off campus or made recordings, they were known as The Coventry Lads. Croce was also a student disc jockey at WKVU, which has since become WXVU. In 1965, he graduated from Villanova with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies.

Croce did not take music seriously until he studied at Villanova, where he became a leader of the Villanova Singers, formed bands, and performed at fraternity parties, coffeehouses, and universities around Philadelphia. Croce played "anything that the people wanted to hear: blues, rock, a cappella, railroad music … anything." His band was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa, the Middle East and Yugoslavia. Croce later said, "We just ate what the people ate, lived in the woods, and played our songs. Of course they didn't speak English over there but if you mean what you're singing, people understand." On November 29, 1963, while judging a contest at the Philadelphia Convention Hall during a hootenanny, he met his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.