YMMV / Jim Croce

• Awesome Music:
  • "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" is a wistful yet melodic Break-Up Song with lyrics that really punch you in the gut as the singer tries to assure himself that he's totally fine when he really isn't.
  • "Working at the Car Wash Blues" is a relatable song for any minimum-wage workers who feel their skills misused and their intelligence unappreciated.
  • "Rapid Roy the Stock Car Boy" is a fun little tale about the life of a supremely talented race car driver.
  • Both "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" are catchy and creative songs about notorious tough guys getting comeuppance for their actions — the former song being slicker and more suave in tone while the latter is jauntier and more bombastic.
  • "Time in a Bottle" — Croce's second and last number 1 hit — is a heartwarming song about Croce's love and devotion for his newborn son and how he will cherish the time he spends being his father. It was one of the last songs he released before the plane crash that took his life.
• Common Knowledge: "Time in a Bottle" is commonly thought of as a romantic song. He actually wrote it for his then-newborn son.
• Memetic Mutation: Well, you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask of that ole Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jim.^note or Slim.
• Retroactive Recognition: The two men who wrote Croce's hit "I Got a Name", Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, also wrote "Killing Me Softly with His Song", as well as the theme songs to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: The majority of his success came after his death.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: Though it's okay because both are by the same artist, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" are very similar in narrative.
• Unintentional Period Piece: "Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels)". Both due to it being rooted in The Vietnam War ^note Croce said the song was inspired by his time spent in the military, as he watched long queues of men line up to use the only phone on base to call their significant others and find out if the Dear John Letters they just received were true. and its entire premise of having a conversation with the phone operator, a profession that went the way of the dodo decades ago.

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