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Artist Bio
Jim Croce
Click her for Jim Croce Song Lyrics
 Jim's
musical career started when he was five years old,
learning to play "Lady of
Spain" on the accordion. He
says, "I was the original
underachiever. I'd shake that thing and smile, but I was sort of a
late bloomer." He
didn't really take music too
seriously until 1964, while he was attending Villanova College in
Pennsylvania. There he formed various bands, doing fraternity
parties and playing
"anything that the people
wanted to hear: blues, rock, acapella,
railroad music...anything."
One of those bands was chosen for
a foreign exchange tour of
Africa and the Middle East. "We had a good time," Jim recalls. "We
just ate what the
people ate, lived in the
woods, and played our songs. Of
course they didn't speak
English over there... but if you
mean what you're singing,
people understand."
He returned to Philadelphia
and he had decided to be "serious." But it was hard to make a living
playing in a band, and his previous employment experiences had lost
their appeal: "I'd worked construction crews, and I'd been a welder
while I was in college. But I'd rather do other things than get
burned." Like most underachieving accordion players, he had a hard
time finding the right other things. His determination to be serious
("I even got a pair of shoes that look like the Ace of Spades, with
holes in them") led to a job at a Philadelphia R&B radio station,
where he translated commercials into Soul. "I'd sell airtime to
Bronco's Poolroom, and then write the spot: 'You wanna be cool, and
you wanna shoot pool...(dig it).'" Increasingly frustrated, he quit
to teach guitar at a summer camp ("to people who had to wear loafers
'cause they couldn't tie their shoes'") and even enlisted in the
U.S. Army. He didn't have a very illustrious military career, but
says he's prepared if there's ever a war where we have to defend
ourselves with mops.
Back to the radio station
again, briefly ("that was about the end of my seriousness"), and
then he tried teaching "special education" to discipline problem
students in a Philadelphia high school. Finally he decided to give
his music a chance.
He'd been playing some
pretty tough bars ("I can still get my guitar off faster than anyone
else"), then he and his wife, Ingrid, moved to New York and began
working coffeehouses. Tommy West, who had attended Villanova College
with Jim, introduced them to Terry Cashman, and in 1969, Cashman and
West produced their album, Jim and Ingrid. They remained on
the coffeehouse circuit for a year and a half, involving themselves
in the music business and collecting guitars. But, they soon became
discouraged by the agitation and pressures of city life, and moved
to Lyndell, Pennsylvania, where they had their son, Adrian James.
Ingrid learned to bake bread and to can fruits and vegetables and
Jim, like a rich lady selling her jewels, sold the guitars he had
accumulated, one by one. When the guitars ran out, he worked
construction again and did some studio work in New York. "Mostly
background 'oohs' and 'ahhs' for commercials. I kept thinking,
'maybe tomorrow I'll sing some words.'"
His first album, You
Don't Mess Around With Jim, was an instant success. Jim
immediately became a top bill club and concert performer and the
title song and "Operator" pulled from the album, were both highly
successful singles. The friendliness and sincerity of Jim's
performances have endeared him to a wide variety of audiences.
"Well," laughed Jim, "I'm
glad I'm not running anymore jackhammers. It's a lot easier to have
a good time. I think music should make people sit back and want to
touch each other...I just hope people get a kick out of it."
Since the first album, things
have been strictly uphill for Jim. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," which was
pulled from the second LP entitled Life and Times reached
the top of the national pop charts before it went Gold. Jim's latest
album is called I've Got a Name and the title cut is part
of the soundtrack for 20th Century
Fox's new film The Last American Hero. Many other things
are being planned for the unlikely hero of Philly, including
appearances in films as well as more soundtrack offers.
Jim Croce - "I've Got a
Name." He certainly has.
(Writer unknown, ©1973
ABC Records, Inc.) |
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