September 20, 1973: Jim Croce Is Killed

September 20, 1973: Jim Croce is killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He was only 30 years old.

This was also the day of the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. I have a separate entry for that.

James Joseph Croce was born on January 10, 1943 in Philadelphia, and grew up in adjoining Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. In 1965, he graduated from nearby Villanova University, where he was a student disc jockey at their radio station. Like so many other DJs before and since, he thought he could make records as good as the ones he was playing. He was one of the few who turned out to be right.

In 1966, he recorded his 1st album, Facets. His parents hoped that he would give up music after the album failed. It didn't fail. He and his wife, Ingrid Jacobson, moved to suburban South Jersey, and he enlisted in the New Jersey National Guard, in the hope of avoiding being sent to Vietnam. It worked, although he was an undistinguished soldier: He later said he would be prepared if "there's ever a war where we have to defend ourselves with mops."

But his subsequent releases did fail, and he had to get "real jobs." He hated them: "I'd worked construction crews, and I'd been a welder while I was in college. But I'd rather do other things than get burned." This led to songs like "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues." In 1972, Jim got a contract with ABC Records, leading to the album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.

There have been a few famous men named James Walker. There was Jimmy, a.k.a. Beau James, the convention-flouting Mayor of New York in the 1920s; there was Jimmy, an NBA star at the time of the album; there was Jimmie, who stared as James Evans Jr., a.k.a. J.J., on the sitcom Good Times, a few years after the album; and there was Big Jim Walker, the title character of Croce's title track, "a pool-shootin' son of a gun" and "The King of 42nd Street."

Spoiler Alert for a song half a century old: Jim hustles a kid from South Alabama: "I am a pool-shootin' boy, my name is Willie McCoy, but, down home, folks call me Slim." He comes into the pool hall where Big Jim holds court, says he's come to get his money back, and everyone tells him:

You don't tug on Superman's cape.

You don't spit into the wind.

You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger.

And you don't mess around with Jim.

Well, "Jimmy come boppin' in off that street," and there's a knife fight, and when it's over, the line becomes, "You don't mess around with Slim."

Another song on the album was "Time In a Bottle," a love song tinged with sadness. But it wasn't released as a single at the time.

But the album was a smash. Within 3 days in August 1972, Croce appeared on both American Bandstand and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, followed a month later by The Dick Cavett Show.

His next album, Life and Times, was released on July 1, 1973. It included "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," the song by which he remains best known. The song is largely a ripoff: The piano opening is nearly identical to that of "Queen of the Hop" by Bobby Darin, and the story is basically a rewrite of "You Don't Mess Around With Jim."

In this case, the action moves to the Windy City: "Now, the South Side of Chicago is the baddest part of town." The similarities between Leroy Brown and Big Jim Walker are many. Both are big men, compared to animals: Jim is "stronger than a country hoss," while Leroy is "badder than old King Kong, and meaner than a junkyard dog." Both drive Cadillacs: Jim has a drop-top, while Leroy has an Eldorado. Both men use blades. Both men gamble. And messing with either one of them is, at least at the beginnings of their songs, considered a very bad idea.

There are, of course, differences, in addition to their respective hometowns. In addition to his Eldorado, Leroy also has a custom Lincoln Continental. Jim is not said to use a gun, although that can't be ruled out. And their blades are different: Jim apparently uses a switchblade, while Leroy "got a .32 gun in his pocket for fun, he got a razor in his shoe."

Jim's fashion sense is never mentioned, while Leroy "likes his fancy clothes," and wears a big diamond ring. Jim is a pool hustler, and while Leroy is said to be a gambler, the only game he is mentioned as playing is shooting dice. (Of course, this doesn't rule out hustling pool, or any other game.) Also, while neither man's race is explicitly mentioned, it's likely that Jim is white and Leroy is black.

And the way these men come to their respective climactic fights is different: Jim had cheated Slim, while Leroy put the moves on a woman he immediately finds out has a jealous husband. But here's where it gets weird: At the end of the song, Croce still says that Leroy is "the baddest man in the whole damn town," despite the fact that he "looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone." Croce never said what the other guy looked like, so maybe Leroy still won the fight. Certainly, taking the beating of your life and still winning would be worth certifying you as "the baddest man in the whole damn town."

The song hit Number 1, and a clip of him playing it on The Midnight Special on June 15, 1973 can be seen on YouTube. He appeared on The Helen Reddy Show on July 19: Australian singer Reddy would soon have her own Number 1 hit with her cover of the country song "Delta Dawn." In July, Croce and his band went to London, and performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test, basically Britain's version of The Midnight Special.

He had just come back from London and recorded a new album, titled I Got a Name, when he went on another tour. Having finished a show at the Prather Coliseum, the arena of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, his plane took off from the Natchitoches airport in a Beechcraft E18S, a propeller-driven model known as the Twin Beech, heading for Sherman, Texas, site of Austin College, where the next night's show was to be.

The plane barely got off the ground before it hit a tree. All 6 people on board were killed: Croce, bandmate Maury Muehleisen, warmup comedian George Stevens, their manager Kenneth Cortese, their road manager Dennis Rast, and pilot Robert N. Elliott.

Jim Croce was buried at Haym Salomon Memorial Park in the Philadelphia suburb of Frazer, Pennsylvania. He was survived by his wife Ingrid (for whom he converted to Judaism), who resumed her recording career; and their son Adrian James, who was 8 days short of his 2nd birthday. As of September 20, 2022, both are still alive. "A.J." also became a recording artist, and looks just like his father, minus the prominent mustache.

Someone at ABC Records remembered "Time In a Bottle," with its themes of love and lost time, and it was posthumously released. It hit Number 1 on December 29, 1973.

In 2006, the TV series Life On Mars aired on British television. It was about Sam Tyler (Jon Simm), a detective in present-day Manchester, who was in an accident, and woke up in 1973. At a nightclub, he sees soccer stars Bobby Charlton and Denis Law of Manchester United and Francis Lee of Manchester City. He also meets Marc Bolan of T. Rex, and warns him, "Drive carefully, especially in Minis!" (In fact, it was his girlfriend, Gloria Jones, singer of the original version of "Tainted Love," who drove the car in his fatal crash, although she survived.)

An American version of the show premiered in 2008, set in New York, and, in the nightclub scene, Sam (played here by Irish actor Jason O'Mara) sees New York Jets superstar Joe Namath, and meets Jim Croce (Don Puglisi), and warns him to be careful of small planes. Although some things Sam does turn out to have changed history, it appears that this version of Croce thought he was nuts (or maybe high), and did not take him seriously. (T. Rex's "Bang a Gong" then plays.)

Buddy Holly, Jim Reeves, Otis Redding, Jim Croce: All died in the crashes of Beechcraft planes. To make matters worse, Reeves' Beechcraft had been built in 1959, the year of Holly's crash.

*

September 20, 1973 was a Thursday. It was early in the NFL season, but midweek, and no games were played that night. The NBA, the ABA, the NHL and the WHA were working their way up to starting new seasons. But there were Major League Baseball games played:

* The Houston Astros and the San Diego Padres, meant to play at the Astrodome on this day, instead had their game moved up as part of a doubleheader the day before, September 19 -- because the promoters of the Battle of the Sexes wanted the Dome for their event. The Astros won the 1st game 8-5, and the Padres won the 2nd game 6-3.

* The New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers were not scheduled. I checked: There was no notation in any of the teams' remaining schedules saying that a game scheduled for this date was made up later, due to rain or any other reason.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. This was "The Ball Off the Wall Game." There was a 5-way dogfight for the National League Eastern Division title. Going into the game, the Pirates were in 1st place, the Montreal Expos were 1 game back, the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals both a game and a half back, and the Chicago Cubs 4 games back. Even so, the Pirates, winners of the 1971 World Series and the last 3 NL East titles, struggling all year after the death of Roberto Clemente in a plane crash the previous New Year's Eve, were the only team above .500, at 75-74. It seemed like no one wanted to win that Division.

But the Metropolitans and the Buccos sure played this game like they both wanted to win it. The game's only home run was hit by Pirate (and future Met) Richie Hebner in the 7th inning, but the Mets tied it 2-2 in the 8th. Both teams scored in the 9th to make it 3-3, and send it to extra innings.

It went to the top of the 13th inning. With 1 out, Richie Zisk singled off Ray Sadecki. Manny Sanguillen flew to right for the 2nd out. Dave Augustine, a 23-year-old center fielder from West Virginia in only his 5th major league game, hit one deep to left. It looked like a home run.

Except it hit the top of the fence, and, instead of bouncing over for a homer, it bounced back, right into Cleon Jones' glove. That's a hit. But Jones pivoted, and fired to Wayne Garrett (playing shortstop instead of his usual 3rd base). Garrett saw that Zisk was trying to score, and threw home to catcher Ron Hodges. Zisk was out at the plate.

The bottom of the 13th began with walks drawn by John Milner and Ken Boswell. Don Hahn popped up to 1st base. But Hodges singled to left, scoring Milner with the winning run. The Mets went on to win the Division, by a game and a half over the Cardinals, 2 1/2 over the Pirates, 3 1/2 over the Expos and 5 over the Cubs. (Although he was on the Mets roster for this game, Willie Mays, soon to announce his retirement, did not play. Willie Stargell went 0-for-5 for the Pirates, although he did draw a walk.)

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cardinals, 6-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Jim Palmer pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Cubs beat the Expos, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* A doubleheader was split at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The California Angels won the 1st game, 6-4. Richie Scheinblum won it with a single in the top of the 11th inning. The Texas Rangers won the 2nd game, 8-3. Closing in on a new record for strikeouts in a season, with 383, Nolan Ryan did not pitch in either game for the Angels.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 at the new Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.)

* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Oakland Athletics at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Twins won the opener, 4-3. Steve Brye hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th. The Twins also won the nightcap, 5-4. Reggie Jackson appeared only once in the twinbill, as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game, and did not get on base. The A's bounced back from this, and from a hundred other indignities, and won the World Series anyway.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Davey Lopes won it with a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning. Hank Aaron went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs, but while he hit 2 doubles, he did not hit any home runs. With 5 games left in the season, he had 711 career home runs, 3 behind the record held by Babe Ruth.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.