Celebrity Graveland

January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973

Jim Croce was a singer-songwriter whose instantly recognizable songs were popular in the early 1970s. His legend and impact only grew in the wake of his untimely death at the age of just 30.

Hits like “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” and “Time in a Bottle” remain well-loved to this day.

Croce took to music while a student at Villanova University in Philadelphia. He met his wife, Ingrid, and the couple played, recorded and toured together as a duo. They began to write their own music and bounced around the east coast of the U.S. before settling back in Philadelphia. Croce did odd jobs to pay the bills. He met fellow singer-songwriter, Maury Muehleisen, and the two musicians began to play together. When Ingrid had the Croces’ first child, Jim decided to get serious about a music career. He shopped demo tapes around and finally got a contract at ABC Records. The first 2 of 3 albums produced a couple of modest hits and Croce’s first #1 single: “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”

Songs on the radio don’t always mean the money comes flowing in. Croce still struggled to make ends meet and took on any gig or tour he could while working on the third album for ABC. Following a college show in Natchitoches, Louisiana in September of 1973, the chartered plane carrying Croce, Muehleisen and 4 others crashed into a tree on take-off, killing everyone on board.

The day after the crash, the single “I Got a Name” was released – as it had been scheduled to. ABC also re-released an earlier song of Croce’s, “Time in a Bottle” which – due to the tragedy and the themes of the song – became Croce’s second and last #1 hit.

Burial

Haym Salomon Memorial Park – Frazer, PA

Specific Location

Section B; Enter the memorial park and go straight up the hill toward the main building. Stop at the east/west sidewalk on your right in section B. Jim is buried north of this sidewalk just north of a large pine tree.

This entry was posted on April 1, 2024 at 9:00 am and is filed under Haym Salomon Memorial Park with tags Haym Salomon Memorial Park, Musicians, Singers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.