Jim Croce | Artist

James Joseph Croce was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter born 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce released five studio albums and numerous singles. 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 did not take music seriously until he studied at Villanova University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies degree in 1965. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Croce performed with his wife as a duo. Croce released his first album, Facets, in 1966, with 500 copies pressed. The album had been financed with a $500 wedding gift from Croce's parents, who set a condition that the money must be spent to make an album, hoping that he would give up music after the album failed, and use his college education to pursue a "respectable" profession. However, the album proved a success, with every copy sold. His second album, the excellent You Don't Mess Around With Jim, released in 1972 was backed up the following year by two more equally excellent releases Life and Times and I Got a Name. His final studio album The Faces I've Been, was issued posthumously. Whilst touring the US in September 1973 Croce wrote a letter to his wife Ingrid, which arrived after his death, telling her he had decided to quit music and stick to writing short stories and movie scripts as a career and withdraw from public life. Although Croce and his wife struggled financially during his life, his records went on to achieve great popularity after his death.

Artist Website: jimcroce.com

Featured Albums: Jim Croce

Video Clips: Bad Bad Leroy Brown, I Got a Name, In Concert in Ireland

Video Clips: I Got a Name, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Time in a Bottle