During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while he continued to write, record and perform concerts.

Croce's breakthrough came in 1972, when his third album, You Don't Mess Around with Jim, produced three charting singles, including "Time in a Bottle", which reached No.

On September 20, 1973, at the height of his popularity and the day before the lead single to his fifth album, I Got a Name, was released, Croce, Muehleisen, and four others died in a plane crash.

He then attended Malvern Preparatory School for a year prior to enrolling at Villanova University, where he majored in psychology and minored in German.

On November 29, 1963, Croce met his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson, at the Philadelphia Convention Hall during a hootenanny, where he was judging a contest.

They hoped that Croce would abandon music after the album failed and use his college education to pursue a more traditional profession.

Initially, their performances included songs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie, but they eventually began writing their own music.

During this time, Croce secured his first long-term gig, at a suburban bar and steakhouse in Lima, Pennsylvania called the Riddle Paddock.

Croce's set list covered several genres, including blues, country, rock and roll, and folk.

In 1968, the Croces were encouraged by the record producer Tommy West, a fellow Villanova alumnus, to move to New York City.

Becoming disillusioned by the music business and New York, they sold all but one guitar to pay the rent and returned to the Pennsylvania countryside, settling in an old farm in Lyndell, where he played for $25 a night ($196 in 2023 dollars[13]).

In 1972, Croce signed a three-record contract with ABC Records, releasing two albums, You Don't Mess Around with Jim and Life and Times.

Croce began touring the United States with Muehleisen, performing in large coffeehouses, on college campuses, and at folk festivals.

In February 1973, Croce and Muehleisen traveled to Europe, performing in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Zurich, and Dublin and receiving encouraging reviews.

Croce made television appearances on The Midnight Special, which he cohosted on June 15, and The Helen Reddy Show on July 19.

From July 16 through August 4, Croce and Muehleisen returned to London and performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test, on which they sang "Lover's Cross" and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues" from their upcoming album I Got a Name.

[22][23] In a letter to Ingrid that arrived after his death, Croce told her that he had decided to quit music and wanted to write short stories and movie scripts as a career and withdraw from public life.

[26][27][28] An hour before the crash, Croce had completed a concert at Northwestern State University's Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified the probable cause as the pilot's failure to see obstructions because of physical impairment and fog that had reduced his vision.

The song subsequently received a large amount of airplay as an album track, and demand for a single release built.

[32] After the single had finished its two-week run at the top in early January 1974, the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim became No.