JIM CROCE

A voice and sound from my very early youth -- 1972-1975 (or thereabouts). JIM CROCE was a working-class singer-songwriter whose compositions benefited from a dichotomy of earthy acoustic guitar and lush backing strings.

Croce's legacy -- like James Dean's -- would be deeply impacted by the nature and timing of his death. While Dean was killed in a car crash at age 24 less than a month before the release of his second film, "Rebel Without a Cause," Croce perished in a plane crash on January 20, 1973 -- less than a month before the release of his album, I GOT A NAME. He was 30 years old.

(The tracks "I Got a Name" and "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" appear on the aforementioned posthumous album.)

[MP3] "I Got a Name"

[MP3] "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)"

[MP3] "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song"

[MP3] "Time in a Bottle"

[MP3] "These Dreams"

[MP3] "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"