Jim Croce (1943-1973)

Jim Croce (1943-1973)

James Joseph Croce was born January 10th, 1943 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to James and Flora Croce. He Grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, graduating from Upper Darby High School in 1960. Croce went on to continue his education at Villanova University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in German in 1965. While attending college he was a member of the Villanova Singers, Villanova Spires, and was a student Disc Jockey at WKVU.

Croce didn’t get involved much with music until he began his studies at Villanova. While there he formed many bands that performed really anywhere and played music that the crowds wanted to hear. In 1966, he released his first album Facets with money that was a wedding present from his parents. They hoped that the record would fail and that failure would lead him to get a more conventional job that embraced his college studies. This wasn’t the case, the record was very successful; selling every copy. In later years, Croce would perform with his wife singing cover songs originally, but then they began to write their own music. They were persuaded to move to New York, but they didn’t succeed, so they moved back to Pennsylvania. After the move they were not making enough money performing, which led Jim to get a job at the radio station WHAT. Then, in 1972, he signed a 3-record contract with ABC Records.

Achievements:

1974: American Music Award for favorite pop/rock male artist.

The album I Got a Name was released on December 1, 1973. The posthumous release included three hits: "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues," "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song," and the title song, which had been used as the theme to the film The Last American Hero which was released two months prior to his death. The album reached No. 2 and "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" reached No. 9 on the singles chart.

A greatest hits album entitled Photographs & Memories was released in 1974. Later posthumous releases have included Home Recordings: Americana, The Faces I've Been, Jim Croce: Classic Hits, Down the Highway, and DVD and CD releases of Croce's television performances, Have You Heard: Jim Croce Live. In 1990, Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

On July 3, 2012, Ingrid Croce published a memoir about her husband entitled I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story.

In 1985, Ingrid Croce opened Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar, a project she and Jim had jokingly discussed over a decade earlier, in the historic Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego. She owned and managed it until it closed on December 31, 2013. In December 2013, she opened Croce's Park West on 5th Avenue in the Bankers Hill neighborhood near Balboa Park. She closed this restaurant in January 2016.