Usually at the start of these Do You Remember articles, we take an in-depth look at the history and how we arrived at this record.

While we will look at the brief history, there’s also a more significant, personal story for me with Jim Croce and this record.

In short, how we got “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” is simple. After Croce’s debut record “Facets” was released in 1966 with only 500 vinyl copies pressed with advancement from his parents as a wedding gift, Croce sold every copy, made a profit of $2,500, and would not release any music until the 1972 record “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.”

For me, at a very young age, I remember listening to Croce’s songs like “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” playing from my dad’s car. As I grew up, I started venturing into the hard rock realm of Kiss and the southern rock melodies of The Black Crowes and forgot the amazing singer that was Jim Croce.

Jump forward to the summer of 2023 and as I was browsing through the new arrivals section of my local record store with my father (Main Street Beat in Nyack, New York), he pulled out Jim Croce’s You Don’t Mess Around With Jim and said “we have to buy this one.”

From the moment that the needle hit the record and the first note out of Croce’s guitar played, I was immediately taken back to sitting in the backseat of my dad’s old Nissan Ultima.

That’s how we got here, a man who released his breakthrough record that reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 and the rediscovery of his music 51 years later in a second-hand record store in New York.

The opening track, the aforementioned title track opens up with a catchy beat as Croce strums away at his guitar. “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” has such a jumpy song that is backed up with piano played by Tommy West and a great acoustic lead guitar riff brought to you by New Jersey native, Maury Muehleisen.

This is a song that is supposed to be autobiographical about a name named Jim who is big and tough. With lyrics like “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” is a fun song to sing along to. “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” is one of those songs that I remember from a very early age being played in the back of my dad’s car.

Track three, “New York’s Not My Home” is my favorite song on the entire record. The song has such a beautiful riff and Croce’s folk-like voice fits in so well with this song. According to songfact.com, they state that the inspiration for this song was after Croce and his wife Ingrid were leaving from New York City to move back to Pennsylvania. Ingrid goes on to state how Croce never felt like the Empire State was his true home.

Croce’s melodic voice matched with the chords on his guitar, piano, orchestra, and harmonica make for the most perfect song on the album and potentially one of Corce’s best songs ever.

The few songs in the middle like “Hard Time Losin’ Man,” “Photographs and Memories,” and “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” are good songs but track seven is one of those songs that stood out to me most.

Following the softer melodic song that was “New York’s Not My Home” is track seven, “Operator (That’s Not the Way it Feels).” This song is definitely more light-hearted than the previously mentioned “New York’s Not My Home” but at the same time, Croce is able to convey a different emotion through his vocals. While the chords are more lively, Croce’s lyrics and voice are able to send shivers up and down listeners’ spins. In terms of clarity and how beautiful his voice is, I would put it up there with Roy Orbison.

The following track, “Time In a Bottle” is a love story, assumably to Croce’s wife Ingrid. With lyrics like “I’ve looked around enough to know that you’re the one I want to go through time with” it’s safe to say that the moment that Croce saw his wife, he knew that she was the one. You simply don’t get that kind of love song from today’s music.

The last four songs, “Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy),” “Box #10,” “A Long Time Ago,” and “Hey Tomorrow,” are equally classics and help round out the rest of the record.

When you look at some of the other records that have appeared in this Do You Remember series like Slash’s Snakepit, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper, Jim Croce is a lot more grassroots and folk.

It’s nice to always switch up genres of music every now and then. I think Croce is the perfect artist to highlight for October. The weather is changing and getting cooler, and the leaves are following and I think Croce is the perfect vibe for the cooler fall season.

If you haven’t ever listened to Croce before, I highly suggest giving him a listen. He’s worth the time and I am sure that you too will have a new favorite artist.