You Don't Mess Around with Jim

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 eight-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.Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top Pop Albums 1955–1985, Record Research Inc., 1985, p. 88, 505. It was listed at No. 6 on the 1974 Cash Box year-end album charts.{{cite web|title=The Cash Box 1974 year-end album charts|url=http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/70s_files/1974YEAP.html|access-date=August 30, 2022}} 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.

{{Main article|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."

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic called it "his commercial breakthrough"{{Cite web |last=Ruhlmann |first=William |title=Jim Corce - You Don't Mess Around With Jim: Ratings & Reviews |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/you-dont-mess-around-with-jim-mw0000414335 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=AllMusic}}

Billboard selected the album for a "Pop Special Merit" review, and called it "an Fashioned Album"{{cite magazine |date=June 10, 1972 |title=Special Merit Pop Picks: You Don't Mess Around With Jim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkUEAAAAMBAJ&dq=june+10%2C+1972+billboard&pg=RA2-PA43 |magazine=Billboard |page=43 |volume=84 |issue=24 |editor=}}

{{Track listing

| headline =

| all_writing = Jim Croce

| title1 = You Don't Mess Around with Jim

| length1 = 3:00

| title2 = Tomorrow's Gonna Be a Brighter Day

| length2 = 2:49

| title3 = New York's Not My Home

| length3 = 3:05

| title4 = Hard Time Losin' Man

| length4 = 2:23

| title5 = Photographs and Memories

| length5 = 2:03

| title6 = Walkin' Back to Georgia

| length6 = 2:47

| title7 = Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)

| length7 = 3:45

| title8 = Time in a Bottle

| length8 = 2:24

| title9 = Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)

| length9 = 2:40

| title10 = Box No. 10

| length10 = 2:22

| title11 = A Long Time Ago

| length11 = 2:18

| title12 = Hey Tomorrow

| length12 = 2:40

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 2006 edition – Disc 1{{Ref label|note_a1|A| }}

| title13 = Which Way Are You Going{{'-}}

| length13 = 2:20

| title14 = Mississippi Lady

| length14 = 3:59

| title15 = Country Girl

| length15 = 1:49

| title16 = King's Song

| length16 = 3:21

| title17 = Chain Gang Medley

| length17 = 4:29

| title18 = Ol' Man River

| length18 = 2:26

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 2006 edition – Disc 2

| title1 = Maybe Tomorrow

| length1 = 2:30

| title2 = Stone Walls

| length2 = 2:58

| title3 = Railroads and Riverboats

| length3 = 3:12

| title4 = (And) I Remember Her

| length4 = 2:49

| title5 = More Than That Tomorrow

| length5 = 2:44

| title6 = The Way We Used to Be

| length6 = 2:30

| title7 = Cotton Mouth River

| length7 = 2:00

| title8 = Circle of Style

| note8=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length8 = 2:09

| title9 = Carnival of Pride

| note9=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length9 = 1:53

| title10 = Wear Out the Turnpike

| note10=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length10 = 2:14

| title11 = Can't Wait

| note11=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length11 = 1:53

| title12 = (The) Migrant Worker

| note12=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length12 = 1:54

| title13 = Railroad Song

| note13=featuring Ingrid Croce

| length13 = 2:55

| title14 = Child of Midnight

| length14 = 2:48

}}

Notes

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• A {{Note|note_a1}} Tracks 1–12 correspond to the original 1972 album

{{refend}}

• Jim Croce – guitar, rhythm guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals
• Maury Muehleisen – lead acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• The Briggs – backing vocals
• Terry Cashman – backing vocals on "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)"
• Tommy West – bass, percussion, piano, rhythm guitar, keyboards, electric piano, backing vocals
• Harry Boyle – guitar on "Hey Tomorrow"
• Joe Macho – bass
• Jim Ryan – bass on "Box #10"
• Gary Chester – drums
• Ellie Greenwich, Tasha Thomas – backing vocals
• Peter Dino – arrangements

;Technical

• Bruce Tergesen – recording and mixing engineer
• Paul Wilson – photography

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class="wikitable" !Year !Chart !Position

1974 {{album chart|Canada|1|chartid=4940}}

1974 {{album chart|Billboard200|1|artist=Jim Croce}}

class="wikitable" |+ Singles !Year !Single !Chart !Position

1972 |"You Don't Mess Around with Jim" |Billboard Hot 100 | style="text-align:center;"|8

1972 |"You Don't Mess Around with Jim" |Easy Listening | style="text-align:center;"|9

1972 |"Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" |Billboard Hot 100 | style="text-align:center;"|17

1973 |"Time in a Bottle" |Billboard Hot 100 | style="text-align:center;"|1

1973 |"Time in a Bottle" |Easy Listening | style="text-align:center;"|1

{{col-2}}

class="wikitable
Chart (1974) !Position
{{album chart|Canada|6|chartid=3891|access-date=December 11, 2024|refname=CA_YE}}
US Billboard 200{{cite web|url=https://bestsellingalbums.org/year-end/Billboard_Top_Albums_1974|title=Top US Billboard 200 Albums - Year-end 1974|website=BestSellingAlbums.org|access-date=December 11, 2024}} | style="text-align:center;"|5

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{{reflist}}

{{Jim Croce}}

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Category:Jim Croce albums

Category:1972 albums

Category:Albums produced by Terry Cashman

Category:ABC Records albums

Category:Vertigo Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Tommy West (producer)