You Don't Mess Around with Jim is the third studio album and major-label debut by American singer-songwriter Jim Croce. It was released in April 1972 by ABC Records.
History and release The album was recorded over a three- to four-week period for about $18,000, with most funding coming from the PolyGram Group in Baarn, the Netherlands, on the basis of hearing an eight-song demonstration 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" (number-one pop, number-one adult contemporary), 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. Two singles were originally released from the album in 1972, the title track (number-eight pop) and "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" (number-17 pop).
The album was issued on CD by the Rhino Flashbacks record label on September 30, 2008.
Tracks
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." 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"), though, the chorus now goes, "You don't mess around with Slim."
Reception William Ruhlmann of AllMusic called it "his commercial breakthrough"
Billboard selected the album for a "Pop Special Merit" review and called it "a Fashioned Album".
Track listing
Notes
A Tracks 1–12 correspond to the original 1972 album
Personnel Jim Croce – rhythm guitar, lead vocals Maury Muehleisen – lead acoustic guitar, backing vocals on "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" Gary Chester – drums The Briggs – backing vocals Terry Cashman – backing vocals on "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" Tommy West – keyboards, bass on "Photographs and Memories", "Walkin' Back to Georgia", and "Time in a Bottle", backing vocals Harry Boyle – electric guitar on "Hey Tomorrow" Joe Macho – bass Jim Ryan – bass on "Box #10" Ellie Greenwich, Tasha Thomas – backing vocals Peter Dino – string arrangements Technical Terry Cashman – producer Tommy West – producer Bruce Tergesen – recording and mixing engineer Paul Wilson – photography
Chart history
Weekly charts YearChartPosition19741974
+ SinglesYearSingleChartPosition1972"You Don't Mess Around with Jim"Billboard Hot 10081972"You Don't Mess Around with Jim"Easy Listening91972"Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)"Billboard Hot 100171973"Time in a Bottle"Billboard Hot 10011973"Time in a Bottle"Easy Listening1
Year-end charts Chart (1974)PositionUS Billboard 2005
Certifications CountryCertificationsUnited StatesGold
References