Jim Croce

James Joseph Croce was born in South Philadelphia to an Italian-American family and grew up in Drexel Hill; between 1966 and 1973 he released five albums and took a string of odd jobs to pay the bills while he wrote, recorded and played concerts. His partnership with the guitarist Maury Muehleisen turned his fortunes, and the breakthrough came in 1972 with You Don't Mess Around with Jim; the next album, Life and Times, carried Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, his only number one during his lifetime, while Time in a Bottle reached number one after his death.

In 1966 he married his songwriting partner Ingrid Jacobson, who was Jewish, converted to Judaism from Catholicism, and the two were married in a traditional Jewish ceremony. On 20 September 1973 Croce, Muehleisen and four others were killed in a plane crash, one day before the release of the first single from his fifth album; his records went on charting through the decade, his widow kept writing and recording, and their son A. J. Croce became a singer-songwriter in his own right.