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Jim Croce was a giant among singer-songwriters. Though his time in the national spotlight was comparatively brief, he left an indelible impression upon popular music. His career was cut short on September 20, 1973 when a plane carrying him crashed, killing him and five others. He was 30, and left behind a wife and toddler son, A.J.<\/p>\n
As the younger Croce grew to adulthood, he launched a creatively successful career all his own, with a style that drew upon musical traditions across the American landscape. To date A.J. Croce has released 11 well-received albums; 2021\u2019s By Request<\/i> is his latest. But as the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of Jim Croce\u2019s best-loved works approached, A.J. shifted his focus to a celebration of his late father\u2019s music. \u201cCroce Plays Croce\u201d is a cross-country tour spotlighting the life, times and music of Jim Croce.<\/p>\n Jim Croce\u2019s musical vignettes were portraits of characters \u2013 some partly real, some the product of his fertile and creative imagination \u2013 and his straightforward way with words and melody earned him fame. Croce\u2019s success would come comparatively late; after two non-charting albums, he struck gold with 1972\u2019s You Don\u2019t Mess Around With Jim<\/i>. That LP spawned three hit singles: the title track, \u201cOperator (That\u2019s Not the Way it Feels)\u201d and the classic \u201cTime in a Bottle.\u201d Two more successful albums and four more hit singles (including \u201cBad, Bad Leroy Brown\u201d) followed in rapid succession, but Jim Croce died before he could truly enjoy the success his music had found.<\/p>\n A.J. Croce began playing his father\u2019s music in 2019; prior to that he had made a point of avoiding it. \u201cAs an artist, I felt I needed to have some integrity,\u201d he explains. \u201cI couldn’t feel proud of what I did if it was just based on the work of someone else.\u201d Instead, he toured and\/or collaborated with some of the most respected names in music, including B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and the Neville Brothers. \u201cThey all really encouraged me to do what I do,\u201d he says. \u201cThey hired me because they liked what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet even while A.J. wasn\u2019t playing his father\u2019s music, he was involved with it behind the scenes. \u201cFor almost 30 years, I had been working with the publishing,\u201d he says. \u201cI was making sure that people still heard the music through [placement in] film and television series.\u201d<\/p>\n Those efforts have helped to keep Jim Croce\u2019s body of work in the public consciousness. \u201cLicensing those songs does something more for a legacy catalog like my father\u2019s,\u201d A.J. says. Thanks to so-called sync licensing of recordings from those early \u201870s records, \u201cthe music is going to reach people that are my kids\u2019 age, and the generation after them,\u201d he says. \u201cStranger Things<\/i> did much more for \u2018You Don\u2019t Mess Around With Jim\u2019 than having it played on the radio every day [does].\u201d A.J. says that the primary benefit of that placement \u201cwasn\u2019t what it paid; it was that it helped make younger generations conscious of the music.\u201d<\/p>\n A.J. Croce credits the honesty at the core of his father\u2019s song as another key to their continued popularity. Those songs were not a put-on, he says. \u201cThis was a real person telling stories. And I think that people are looking for real<\/i>; they\u2019re looking for music that isn\u2019t just manufactured to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim Croce had a Master\u2019s Degree in psychology, and he brought a deep understanding of the human psyche to bear in his storytelling songs. His works championed \u201cheroes in their own worlds, with all their imperfections and flaws,\u201d A.J. says. \u201cAnd that makes [the characters] even more likable.\u201d Jim Croce sometimes began writing a song by basing it upon an actual individual, and then applied artistic license to craft a relatable story. \u201cLeroy Brown was a real person,\u201d A.J. notes. \u201cBut he was a totally different character than the one in the song.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim Croce\u2019s son says that people come to the \u201cCroce Plays Croce\u201d shows for nostalgia. \u201cThey grew up with the songs, or their parents showed them the songs\u2026 or their grandparents showed them the songs,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople come to the concerts more than once or twice even, because with the stories, the show is different every night.\u201d<\/p>\n A.J. Croce says that he treats his dad\u2019s music with respect. \u201cBut we also improvise and show that the music is alive,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about my father; it\u2019s about two generations of a musical legacy, told through the lens of a family.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, though, A.J. Croce admits that the essence of his father\u2019s songs is hard to pin down. \u201cI think that if I knew the exact answer,\u201d he says with a chuckle, \u201cI would write the same type of songs and create some more American classics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jim Croce was a giant among singer-songwriters. Though his time in the national spotlight was comparatively brief, he left an indelible impression upon popular music. 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And that music continues to resonate with current-day listeners; 1974\u2019s Photographs and Memories: His Greatest Hits<\/i> is filled with Jim Croce songs that have lasted. And the 50-year mark struck A.J. as the right time to celebrate that body of work. He suggests that the reason those songs endure has much to to with his father\u2019s knack for creating universal characters. \u201cWhether he\u2019s writing in first-person perspective or third-person, he makes heroes out of everyday people,\u201d A.J. observes. He compares Jim Croce\u2019s writing to that of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (\u201cHound Dog,\u201d \u201cSpanish Harlem,\u201d \u201cStand By Me\u201d and dozens of others). \u201cThey all wrote great character songs; they had a sense of humor, and the stories were organic.\u201d<\/p>\n