Jim Croce was born on Sunday, January 10th, 1943, in a working-class section of Philadelphia, to an Italian-American family. As a teenager, he began playing the accordion and later learned to play an acoustic guitar at 18. After serving in the U.S. Army, Jim attended Villanova University, where he studied psychology, but spent most of his time playing music and performing with bands.
After graduating, Jim worked as a construction worker, a school teacher, and even drove a diesel truck to support his family. In 1966, he married Ingrid Jacobson, and they moved to New York City, where they performed as a folk duo, releasing an album titled "Another Day, Another Town".
Jim and Ingrid moved back to Pennsylvania, where they bought a farmhouse and had their only son, Adrian James Croce, born on Tuesday, September 28th, 1971. Jim continued to work as a diesel truck driver to support his family. A year later, a friend advised him to record some of his new songs and send them to ABC Records, which signed him and released his first solo album, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim", in 1972.
The album was a huge success, and Jim went on to perform over 250 concerts, release his second album, "Life and Times", and even record a third album, "I've Got a Name", which included the hit song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". His song "Time in a Bottle" received national attention after being featured in a made-for-TV movie.
Tragically, Jim's life was cut short in a plane crash on Thursday, September 20th, 1973, while traveling to a gig in Texas. His third album, "I've Got a Name", included the posthumous hits "I Got a Name" and "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song".
In the lyrics to his haunting song "Time in a Bottle", Jim left his own epitaph, saying, "There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them".
