Throwing back to the week of January 5, 1974, we find Jim Croce at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with the beautiful love ballad ‘Time in a Bottle.’
Sadly, Croce had died the previous September in a plane crash that also took the lives of five others — including bandmate Maury Muehleisen, who played guitar on this song.
This was Croce’s second #1 hit (after ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’) and the third posthumous song to reach #1 (Otis Redding’s ‘Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay’ and Janis Joplin’s ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ were the first two).
‘Time in a Bottle’ initially appeared on Croce’s 1972 album You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, but it was released as a single after receiving ample radio play following his death. The lovely lyrics, written for his wife when he learned she was pregnant, certainly hit harder in light of his passing.
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
[Verse 2]
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you
[Chorus]
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do, once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go through time with
[Verse 3]
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty, except for the memory of how
They were answered by you
[Chorus]
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do, once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go through time with
Meet Me In Montauk 
Truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
So sad 😞 and beautiful