When I hear this song it automatically makes me feel good but it’s also tinged with sadness because of what happened before this was released.
Whenever I think of Jim Croce…I think of his album that my sister and I played when I was 6 and 7 years old. It was the first time I ever heard about a star dying. I heard it on the radio when I was 7. My sister had his greatest hits and I played it non-stop. This one is easy for kids to remember. This song has been played to death and I wasn’t going to post it…but after listening to it I admit I was enjoying the song again.
Jim Croce and guitarist Maury Muehleisen died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973. The song peaked at #1 in July of 1973 and was still on the charts when the accident happened. There were 3 stars around this time that died and that stuck with me for the rest of my life. Jim Croce, David “Stringbean” Akeman, and Don Rich the lead guitarist for Buck Owens a year later. As a kid I knew Croce the best and I couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on.
On September 20, 1973, a chartered small plane attempted to take off in thick fog from Natchitoches in Louisiana, bound for Sherman, Texas. On reaching the end of the runway, the pilot suffered a heart attack and lost control of the aircraft and they hit a tree. No one survived.
Jim Croce was not a pin-up model…he looked like a regular blue-collar worker going to work on a construction site. He and Maury Muehleisen were pure magic on guitars. I didn’t realize how good they were together until years later after I started playing guitar.
This song was the title track to his album, released 3 months after he died. The song was used as the theme song of the soundtrack to a 1973 movie, The Last American Hero, starring Jeff Bridges and based on the life of stock-car racing driver Junior Johnson. Croce and Muehleisen didn’t write this song which surprised me. The song is credited to Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. It’s been used in other movies as well since then like the 2012 film Django Unchained.
The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 and #8 in Canada in 1974. The album I Got A Name peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts and #2 in Canada.
Ingrid Croce (Jim’s wife): “More people think he wrote that song. His voice was so unique… the timbre in his tone and his warmth and his generosity, everything came through that voice. So when he took a song, he’d make it his own, and I think he did a great job with ‘I’ve Got A Name.’ So many people like to think of Jim with that song that I hate to tell them it isn’t his.”
Producer Terry Cashman: “We recorded it because Jim was going to get a lot of money to record the song, and if it was released as a single, it would be the main title of a movie called The Last American Hero. So it wasn’t a song that Jim wrote on the guitar with Maury [Muehleisen]. Tommy and Jimmy and Maury and myself came up with the arrangement together. It was a different kind of animal. We did that song with just the tracks for us, and then recorded Jim’s voice over it, which is the way most people did records in those days. But most people think that Jim wrote that song because it sounds like the other songs, and then the production of course is a little bit more elaborate. It was different in that way, but Maury has a big guitar part and it certainly sounded like one of his records. And it became one of his most popular records. You know, a lot of people have covered that song, and it’s been used in a number of other movies.”
I Got A Name
Like the pine trees linin’ the windin’ road
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
Like the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toad
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m living the dream that he kept hid
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
Like the north wind whistlin’ down the sky
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
Like the whippoorwill and the baby’s cry
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud
If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
And I’m gonna go there free
Like the fool I am and I’ll always be
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
They can change their minds but they can’t change me
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
Oh, I know I could share it if you want me to
If you’re goin’ my way, I’ll go with you
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
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We will never know what else he had in store for us. I loved his music, and still do. I have the Life and Times album but havn’t spun it in years, now Ima gonna give it a ride before the day is done. Thanks for a great post, Max.
He is worth another spin Phil.
Poor Jim died way too young. Time In A Bottle still gets to me big-time…
What a great talent he was, and how sad the circumstances of his death. I’d forgotten this wasn’t his own song, but he sure made it ‘his’. A Jim Greatest Hits is an essential part of any collection to me.
Yes we had a greatest hits by him…plus another early one. A very talented songwriter and his buddy was a great guitarist.
that too is true!
Great singer and songwriter. As prominent as the bass is in the arrangement, it was weird not finding a bassist on that stage.
Such an incredible talent and someone i was just getting into at the time he died. Sometimes a singer finds a song they feel was written for them and Croce does it beautifully. Fox and Gimbel were pretty incredible tune smiths.
This one is one of my favorites by him…probably the one I keep going back to is Operator.
yeah there’s some forlorn longing in that song that just grabs you.
Jim Croce was a no-nonsense performer, standing at the mic, strumming his guitar and singing. This is my type of music and one of the reasons why I never liked glam rock.
Listening to this song just reminded me of how good a voice he had.
Jim was born nearby, and when he passed our area was absolutely stunned. I remember when I first learned of the accident. It really bummed me out, and was one of those early reminders in life you never know when you’ll be called home. You talk about someone who was taken far too soon, and he’s right at the top of my list. Nice to see him featured here, Max.
Thanks Bruce. He seemed like a blue collar guy made good. I was around 7 and was really confused…but he made some great music.
Max, I don’t think I ever knew how Croce died, only that it was way too soon. Did not know he didn’t write this either. He has several iconic tunes and this is one of them.
I remember it way too well…for a seven year old…confusion and just stunned.
He wasn’t a “pretty” man, but that’s why we focused on his songs and his voice, and somehow that made him more memorable.
Yes it does John….and his son is super talented as well.
Yeah, I remember getting a reality check when Otis Redding died. Harsh to someone discovering music can be more than ’Mary Poppins’ or ‘My Fair Lady’ or ‘The Sound Of Music.’ This sweet treacly stuff aws favoured by the ol’ matron who gave us just beginning to bloom kids an hours worth of ‘popular musical education’ at school Then finding someone who was important to the young you has died. Almost surreal, and bewildering.
Exactly…I was just learning what music was….The one of course that hit the hardest was Lennon…not only because of me being a fan…but why.
Such a great songwriter. How many more Croce classics would have today if only…?
Jim Croce was a pretty amazing songwriter. I also share your sentiment about his and Maury Muehleisen’s guitar playing. I love this song. If I could only pick one, I’d go with “Time In a Bottle.” I find it absolutely beautiful, both musically and in terms of the lyrics.
Croce’s and Muehleisen’s deaths are another reminder how many great music artists perished in air travel accidents – and let’s not forget about the pilots and others on board who weren’t as famous! Fortunately, charter air travel appears to have gotten safer, and you rarely hear about these types of accidents these days.
My favorite by him has to be Operator…something about that song.
Yea I’m glad it’s safer now anyway.
Yes, I love that one as well. Also the more rock-oriented “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”
Croce was such a great songwriter, musician and vocalist.
Another favorite. He had so much play time on the radio he is present in many of my early teenage memories.