Time in a Bottle

"Time in a Bottle"
Single by Jim Croce
from the album You Don't Mess Around with Jim
B-side"Hard Time Losin' Man"
ReleasedNovember 1973
RecordedJanuary–March 1972
Genre
Length2:29
LabelABC
Songwriter(s)Jim Croce
Producer(s)Terry Cashman, Tommy West
Jim Croce singles chronology
"I Got a Name"
(1973)
"Time in a Bottle"
(1973)
"It Doesn't Have to Be That Way"
(1973)

"Time in a Bottle" is a song by singer-songwriter Jim Croce. He wrote the lyrics after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant in December 1970.[2] It appeared on Croce's 1972 ABC debut album You Don't Mess Around with Jim and was featured in the 1973 ABC made-for-television movie She Lives! After he was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, the song was aired frequently on radio, and demand for a single release built. The single of "Time in a Bottle" became Croce's second, and final track to reach number one in the United States.[3]

  1. ^ Breihan, Tom (May 1, 2019). "The Number Ones: Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle"". Stereogum. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Hyatt, Wesley. The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits, Billboard Books, 1999, p. 132.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 7th edition, Billboard Books, 2000, p. 159.