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The shockingly brief but nonetheless brilliant major-label career of Jim Croce will be revisited this year with a triplicate of remixed albums to be released by BMG.

The Definitive Croce, available on CD or vinyl on September 19 (just a day short of 52 years since his passing), gathers both albums he recorded and released for ABC Records during his lifetime (You Don’t Mess Around with Jim and Life and Times) plus the posthumous I Got a Name – all recently remixed by engineer Paul Hicks (whose mixing and mastering work includes projects by The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison). All three were released on vinyl in similar color schemes to the upcoming vinyl package – bone white for Mess Around, sky blue for Life and Times and tangerine for I Got a Name – but this is these mixes’ first CD release. Both formats will be housed in trifold sleeves showcasing the original album covers on the inside.

These 34 tracks represent the majority of the songs that most knew Jim Croce by: hits like “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” “Time in a Bottle,” “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “I Got a Name” and “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.” The Philadelphia-born singer/songwriter fell in love with music in college, even as he pursued a degree in psychology. His parents gave him $500 as a wedding present, hoping it would cure him of musical ambitions – but when he self-released 500 copies of an album, Facets, that sold out, his resolve only increased, balancing songwriting and performing with an assortment of odd jobs. Capitol released one album Croce recorded with his wife Ingrid; though it was not a success, it did connect him to producers Terry Cashman and Tommy West, who’d oversee all his sessions for ABC. It was there that Croce finally hit pay dirt in 1972: the title track of “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” was a catchy folk-boogie about a confrontation between two pool hustlers that reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The gently forlorn ballad “Operator (That’s Not How It Feels)” followed it to the Top 20. By the summer of 1973, he enjoyed his first chart-topper – a “Mess Around” cousin called “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” – and was steadily touring in support of his albums.

Tragically, on September 20, 1973 – an hour after a show at the Northwestern State University of Louisiana and just a day before the title track to his next album was released as a single – Croce and five others were killed in a plane crash. The musician was only 30. That title track, “I Got a Name” (penned by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel for the film The Last American Hero) reached the Top 10 – but then a Mess Around cut, the wistful “Time in a Bottle,” was the next to top the charts as 1973 ended. The tender “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” followed at No. 9, and all three albums (plus greatest hits set Photographs and Memories) would reach the Top 10 of the album charts. Ingrid Croce oversaw a series of posthumous recordings over the next few decades, and their son A.J. – eight days away from turning two when his father died – has forged an eclectic musical career all his own, working with luminaries like T Bone Burnett, Allen Toussaint and Leon Russell.

The time (in a bottle, so to speak) to rediscover Jim Croce’s albums arrives September 19. Check out the pre-order links below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Definitive Croce (BMG, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD/LP 1: You Don’t Mess Around with Jim (2025 Remix by Paul Hicks) (originally released as ABC Records 756, 1972 – released as BMG 538792011, 2022)

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

CD/LP 2: Life and Times (2025 Remix by Paul Hicks) (originally released as ABC Records 769, 1973 – released as BMG 53887841, 2023)

1. One Less Set of Footsteps
2. Roller Derby Queen
3. Dreamin’ Again
4. Careful Man
5. Alabama Rain
6. A Good Time Man Like Me Ain’t Got No Business (Singin’ the Blues)
7. Next Time, This Time
8. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
9. These Dreams
10. Speedball Tucker
11. It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

CD/LP 3: I Got a Name (2025 Remix by Paul Hicks) (originally released as ABC Records 797, 1973 – released as BMG 538904551, 2023)

1. I Got a Name
2. Lover’s Cross
3. Five Short Minutes
4. Age
5. Workin’ At the Car Wash Blues
6. I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song
7. Salon and Saloon
8. Thursday
9. Top Hat Bar and Grille
10. Recently
11. The Hard Way Every Time