You Don't Mess Around with Jim explained

You Don't Mess Around with Jim
Type:Album
Artist:Jim Croce
Cover:Jim Croce - You Don't Mess Around with Jim.jpg
Released:April 1972[1]
Recorded:1971–1972
Studio:Hit Factory, New York City
Genre:Folk rock
Length:33:22
Label:ABC (USA)
Vertigo (UK)
Producer:Terry Cashman, Tommy West
Prev Title:Jim & Ingrid Croce
Prev Year:1969
Next Title:Life & Times
Next Year:1973

You Don't Mess Around with Jim is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Jim Croce, released in April 1972 by ABC Records.

History and release

The album was recorded over a three to four-week period for approximately $18,000, with most funding coming from the PolyGram Group in Baarn, the Netherlands, on the basis of hearing an 8-song demo tape assembled by production team Cashman & West. The deal with PolyGram was made after team attorney Phil Kurnit approached a contact within the record company who then had PolyGram executives listen to the demo tape.After having the finished album rejected by up to 40 record labels, Croce was signed to ABC Records after Cashman & West had a chance meeting with ABC promotion man Marty Kupps. Kupps urged label head Jay Lasker to sign Croce after hearing cuts from a cassette tape of the finished album.

The record spent 93 weeks on the charts, longer than any other Jim Croce album. Due to the strong performance of the posthumous single release "Time in a Bottle" (#1 pop, No. 1 AC), You Don't Mess Around with Jim was the best selling album in the U.S. for five weeks in early 1974.[2] It was listed at No. 6 on the 1974 Cash Box year-end album charts.[3] Two singles were originally released from the album in 1972: the title track (#8 pop) and "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" (#17 pop).

The album was issued on CD by the Rhino Flashbacks record label on September 30, 2008.

Tracks

See main article: article and You Don't Mess Around with Jim (song). The lyrics of the title track concern the fate of a 'pool-shooting son-of-a-gun' by the name of 'Big' Jim Walker when his 'mark', Willie 'Slim' McCoy, from South Alabama, shows up to get a refund from being hustled or get revenge. The song is notable for the line, "You don't tug on Superman's cape/You don't spit into the wind/You don't pull the mask off that ol' Lone Ranger/And you don't mess around with Jim." However, after the song ends with Jim being thoroughly thrashed by his victim ("he'd been cut 'n 'bout a hundred places/ and he'd been shot in a couple more"), the chorus now goes, "You don't mess around with Slim."

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Technical

Chart history

YearChartPosition
1974US Billboard 2001
1974Canadian RPM 1001
Singles!Year!Single!Chart!Position
1972"You Don't Mess Around with Jim"Billboard Hot 1008
1972"You Don't Mess Around with Jim"Easy Listening9
1972"Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)"Billboard Hot 10017
1973"Time in a Bottle"Billboard Hot 1001
1973"Time in a Bottle"Easy Listening1

Certifications

Notes and References

  1. Strong, Martin Charles & John Peel The Great Rock Discography
  2. Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top Pop Albums 1955–1985, Record Research Inc., 1985, p. 88, 505.
  3. Web site: The Cash Box 1974 year-end album charts. August 30, 2022.