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1972 studio album by Jim Croce
You Don't Mess Around with Jim is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Jim Croce; it released in April 1972 by ABC Records.
History and release[edit]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.[5] It was listed at No. 6 on the 1974 Cash Box year-end album charts.[6] 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.
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"[2]
Billboard selected the album for a "Pop Special Merit" review and called it "a Fashioned Album".[7]
2006 edition – Disc 1[A] Title 13. "Which Way Are You Going'" 2:20 14. "Mississippi Lady" 3:59 15. "Country Girl" 1:49 16. "King's Song" 3:21 17. "Chain Gang Medley" 4:29 18. "Ol' Man River" 2:26 2006 edition – Disc 2 Title 1. "Maybe Tomorrow" 2:30 2. "Stone Walls" 2:58 3. "Railroads and Riverboats" 3:12 4. "(And) I Remember Her" 2:49 5. "More Than That Tomorrow" 2:44 6. "The Way We Used to Be" 2:30 7. "Cotton Mouth River" 2:00 8. "Circle of Style" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 2:09 9. "Carnival of Pride" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 1:53 10. "Wear Out the Turnpike" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 2:14 11. "Can't Wait" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 1:53 12. "(The) Migrant Worker" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 1:54 13. "Railroad Song" (featuring Ingrid Croce) 2:55 14. "Child of Midnight" 2:48Notes
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