THE HIT HAMMER: Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle"

(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)

Jim Croce - "Time in a Bottle"

Hit Number 1: December 29, 1973

Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks

In 1970, Jim Croce heard the news that always hits a guy like a ton of bricks: he was unexpectedly going to become a father. The first thing he did upon hearing that was to write a song about it, of course. He never expected it to be a hit or anything, all he wanted was to write down how he felt in that situation. That song would be "Time in a Bottle", and it's about feeling uneasy about the passing of time, and never having enough time to be able to do anything. In Croce's particular situation, he knew he was going to have to change his lifestyle in order to be a good father. His wife, Ingrid, would recall that Croce had a look of terror once she told him the news, but also a look of delight. On one hand, he was shocked that he was suddenly going to be dad, and was accidently becoming one, but on the other hand, he was happy. After all, most guys would love to become a dad at some point.

"Time in a Bottle" only existed as an album cut, at first. It was to be included on the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim, Croce's 1972 album under the ABC label. It was never planned to be anything more than that. Fast forward to September of 1973, though, and "Time in a Bottle" was played during the credits of the made-for-television movie She Lives!, a movie about a woman battling cancer, and her boyfriend's encouragement towards her. Fast forward to a week after the premiere of She Lives! and Croce would die in a plane crash at the age of 30. All of a sudden, "Time in a Bottle" reached a whole new level. Not only was it used at the end of a popular movie about longing for more time with someone you love, but since the song is about the longing for time, it had these unnerving ties to Croce's untimely, tragic death. ABC's hand was forced, and they had to release the song as a single. "Time in a Bottle" was supposed to be about the future, a future that Croce never really got to live.

"Time in a Bottle" wound up being the third posthumous #1 hit, after Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee". Both of those songs would become different kinds of sad, largely because of their artists' untimely deaths, but Croce's is another kind of sad. I mean, the guy's singing about the changing of life and the future, and he's killed before getting to experience any of it. Just like the other two songs, it's impossible to not associate "Time in a Bottle" with Croce's death. These songs that hit #1 after their artists' death take on a whole new meaning. I can't say what I would think of "Time in a Bottle" without thinking about Croce's death. It's impossible. To me, it's forever an enormously sad, haunting song about longing for something you'll never end up getting. The lyric "But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them" is liable to knock you sideways.

This was a departure from Croce's usual work. Croce was always known for his storytelling skills in his songs, very similar to what we saw on "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". You always find yourself listening to the words he's saying, and the good music is just an added bonus. "Time in a Bottle" doesn't tell a story, and it's more like Croce just sat down and wrote down his deepest thoughts, but you're still listening to him. He had know idea what life had in store, but he was ready to take it on. Everything about the song is just haunting, and it's painfully sad. The guitar riffs are soft and melancholic, and Croce holds down his own voice in a sort of quiver. This was unlike Croce, but it was the right approach. He beautifully sells this stuff. He obviously had no way of knowing he was going to die very young, but it's almost like he did know. The existence of the song stands as an intriguing moment of Hot 100 history. A rising star who was taken far too soon, but his final chapter, which is "Time in a Bottle", was about as fitting as it possible could have been. It's almost creepy how much it worked.

GRADE: 10/10