Jim Croce’s aptly timeless Time In A Bottle soared to the top of the US charts after his death in 1973.

The early Seventies was the era of the singer-songwriter and Jim Croce’s tragically short career deserves a place alongside your James Taylors and Don McLeans and Cat Stevenses and Gordon Lightfoots.  Or would that be Lightfeet? (No it wouldn’t).

Time In A Bottle, a melancholy meditation on mortality and the short time we have on earth, was written by Croce when his wife told him she was pregnant.
It became even more poignant three years later when he was killed in a plane crash in September 1973 – heading home to spend more time with his wife and young son.

Released posthumously, it rose to the top of the US charts to become a fitting memorial to Croce, though I’m now surprised to find it wasn’t a hit here in the UK.

It does, however, have a place in one of pop’s nichiest niches – as one of the few to feature a harpsichord though that came about more by accident than design when producer Tommy West spotted a harpsichord in the corner of the studio as he was about to mix the recording.

When the instrument rental company came to take it away, Tommy told them to take a lunch break while he miked it up and played some melodies, even though it was out of tune.