Time in a Bottle


"Time in a Bottle" is a song by singer-songwriter Jim Croce. It appeared on Croce's 1972 ABC third album You Don't [Mess Around with Jim] and was featured in the 1973 ABC made-for-television movie She Lives! After Croce was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, the song was aired frequently on radio, and demand for a single release built. The single of "Time in a Bottle" became Croce's second and final track to reach number one in the United States.

Composition

Croce wrote the lyrics after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant in December 1970.
The arrangement features a harpsichord that producer Tommy West discovered had been left in the mixing studio.

Reception

Cash Box magazine called the song "a sweet, tender ballad filled with Croce's magical vocal touch". Record World called it "an instant classic and an extremely moving record."
"Time in a Bottle" was the third posthumous Billboard number-one hit after "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding and "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin.
After the single finished its two-week run at the top of the charts in early January 1974, the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim became No. 1 for five weeks.
In 1977 "Time in a Bottle" was used as the title of a Time in a Bottle: Jim Croce's [Greatest Love Songs|compilation album] of Croce's love songs.

Track listing

7" single
  1. "Time in a Bottle" – 2:24
  2. "Hard Time Losin' Man" – 2:23

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