JIM CROCE - TIME IN A BOTTLE

TIME IN A BUTTLE

JIM CROCE

SONGWRITER: JIM CROCE

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: YOU DON’T MESS AROUND WITH JIM

LABEL: ABC RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY

YEAR: 1973

 

            James Joseph Croce (/ˈkroʊtʃi/; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce 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, record, and perform concerts. After forming a partnership with songwriter and guitarist Maury Muehleisen his fortunes turned in the early 1970s. His breakthrough came in 1972; his third álbum You Don't Mess Around with Jim produced three charting singles, including "Time in a Bottle", which reached No. 1 after his death. The follow-up album, Life and Times, contained the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", which was the only No. 1 hit he had during his lifetime.

              On September 20, 1973, the day before the lead single to his fifth album, I Got a Name, was released, Croce, (along with five others), was killed in a plane crash, at the height of his popularity. Croce's music continued to chart throughout the 1970s following his death. His wife, Ingrid Croce, was his early songwriting partner and she continued to write and record after his death, and his son A. J. Croce himself became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s.

        "Time in a Bottle" is a hit single by singer-songwriter Jim Croce. Croce wrote the lyrics after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant, in December 1970. It appeared on his 1972 ABC debut album You Don't Mess Around with Jim and was featured in the 1973 ABC made-for-television movie "She Lives!". ABC originally did not intend to release the song as a single; but when Croce was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, its lyrics, dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time, had additional resonance. The song subsequently received a large amount of airplay as an album track and demand for a single release built. When it was eventually issued as a 7", it became his second and final No. 1 hit. After the single had finished its two-week run at the top in early January 1974, the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim became No. 1 for five weeks. In 1977, "Time in a Bottle" was used as the title for a compilation album of Croce's love songs.

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

It's to save everyday till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

 

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save everyday like a treasure and then

Again I would spend them with you

 

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you wanna do

Once you find them

I looked around enough to know

That you're the one I wanna go through time with

 

If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty except for the memory of how

They were answered by you

 

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you wanna do

Once you find them

I looked around enough to know

That you're the one I wanna go through time with.