https://sandmanjazz.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/30-day-album-challenge-day-9/

An album with a really great title… I’m going with Don’t Mess Around With Jim primarily because of the song Time in a Bottle. The way this song came together and ended up on the album is noteable.

“Time in a Bottle originially appeared on his 1972 ABC debut album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim and was featured in the 1973  made-for-television movie “She Lives!“.  But ABC originally didn’t intend to release the song as a single; but when Croce was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, its lyrics, dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time, had additional resonance.” The skeptic in me says ABC capitalized on the money aspect.

According to Wiki, ” Tommy West discovered this mix when he came in the morning and discussed it with Jim. Jim said, “The night before we were going to mix, I was watching a horror movie on TV, and something must have lodged in my brain because when I walked into the studio the next day, I saw this harpsichord sitting in a corner and got an idea. A jingle company had used it on a session and in walked a couple of guys from SIR [Studio Instruments Rental] to haul it away. I asked them to take a lunch break and told Bruce to put a couple of mics on it. He was whining that it was out of tune, but I asked him to let me try something. I added two tracks of harpsichord, told the movers they could remove it, walked into Jerry’s office and asked if I could borrow the electric bass that was sitting on his couch, played that on just the second verse and the outro, and that was that! Radio compression worked in our favor on that record. It made the harpsichord blend with the two guitars in an unusual way.” Tommy and Jim thought this arrangement would only be an album cut but it went a lot further.

You Don’t Mess Around with Jim is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Jim Croce, released in April of 1972. It’s so hard to believe this album was rejected by 40 labels. Were they crazy? You Don’t Mess Around with Jim was the best selling album in the U.S. for five weeks in early 1974.

1.	“You Don’t Mess Around with Jim“	3:02
2.	“Tomorrow’s Gonna Be a Brighter Day”	2:57
3.	“New York’s Not My Home”	3:10
4.	“Hard Time Losin’ Man”	2:29
5.	“Photographs and Memories”	2:09
6.	“Walkin’ Back to Georgia”	2:53
7.	“Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)“	3:50
8.	“Time in a Bottle“	2:29
9.	“Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)”	2:46
10.	“Box No. 10”	2:46
11.	“A Long Time Ago”	2:53
12.	“Hey Tomorrow”

I owned this in vinyl originally then I replaced it with the two cd set that was re-released in 2006.

“If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
‘Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with”

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Jim Croce

Time in a Bottle lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Don’t we all wish we could stop time in a bottle…