"Time in a Bottle" | ||||
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Single by Jim Croce | ||||
from the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim | ||||
B-side | "Hard Time Losin' Man" | |||
Released | November 1973 | |||
Recorded | January–March 1972 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:29 | |||
Label | ABC | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jim Croce | |||
Producer(s) | Terry Cashman, Tommy West | |||
Jim Croce singles chronology | ||||
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"Time in a Bottle" is a song by singer-songwriter Jim Croce. He wrote the lyrics after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant in December 1970.[2] It appeared on Croce's 1972 ABC debut album You Don't Mess Around with Jim and was featured in the 1973 ABC made-for-television movie She Lives! After he 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.[3]
The arrangement features a harpsichord that producer Tommy West discovered had been left in the mixing studio.[4]
Cash Box magazine called the song "a sweet, tender ballad filled with Croce’s magical vocal touch".[5] Record World called it "an instant classic and an extremely moving record."[6]
"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.[7]
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.[8]
In 1977, Time in a Bottle was chosen as the title of a compilation album of Croce's love songs.
7" single (ABC-11405)[9]
Weekly charts[edit]
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Year-end charts[edit]
All-time charts[edit]
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Country | Certification |
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United States | Gold (RIAA)[17] |