Fifty years ago today, Sept. 20, 1973, a plane crash claimed the lives of Jim Croce and five others.
Fifty years ago today, singer / songwriter Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash in Louisiana. He was thirty years old. Also killed was his music collaborator, Maury Muehleisen, who was a classically trained guitarist. Four others perished in the crash of the small plane. They were: the pilot; a comedy performer who was the musicians' opening act; their road manager; and Jim Croce's manager. At the time of his death, Jim Croce was riding a surge in popularity based on his second successful album, "Jim Croce: Life and Times." The album features the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" which received extensive radio play in the summer of 1973.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, before he became famous, Jim Croce toured with and performed at concerts with rising folk music artists such as Arlo Guthrie and the duo Loggins and Messina. The guitars utilized by Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen were of the acoustic variety. The producers of Jim Croce's albums were Terry Cashman and Tommy West who had some success in writing and performing songs of their own. Eleven days after his death, Jim Croce's final album of new music was released. The name of the album is "I Got a Name." The title cut from the album marked a departure from other songs recorded by Jim Croce in that the song was not written by him. In the six months following Jim Croce's death, a surprisingly strong surge of interest in his music took hold in the general public. One song which garnered broad appeal during that time was "Time in a Bottle" which is from the album "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" (1971).
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