In the early 1970's one of my favorite artist's was a guy named Jim Croce.

I think I particularly liked Jim Croce because he was a great songwriter.  This was right around the time I also discovered Kris Kristofferson and both these guys were, in my opinion, wonderful songwriters and storytellers.

Jim was born and raised in the Philadelphia area and began to really 'get into' music while he attended Villanova University.

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Millions of us Baby Boomers are familiar with Jim's great pop music hits, songs like 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim', 'I Got A Name', Time In A Bottle' and a song that has become his signature song, 'Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown'.

 

Jim Croce was tragically killed in a small airplane crash in Louisiana on September 20, 1973. It's one of those days that I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news on my car radio. I was on my way to Austin Vo-Tech in Austin, Minnesota the following morning, just pulling out of the Mobile Home Park where I lived. Jim was just 30 years old. He is one of the artists that falls into the "What might have been" catagories.

Give a listen to this video of Jim singing 'Operator'.  It is a great country music style story song.  Of course, younger people will wonder what a phone operator is and why the operator could and would keep a dime!

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