Personnel: Jim Croce (vocals, guitar); Tommy West (guitar); Maury W. Muehleisen (acoustic guitar); H.J. Boyle (electric guitar); Joe Macho (bass instrument); Gary Chester (drums); Ellie Greenwich (background vocals).

Recording information: New York, New York.

Jim Croce was one of the definitive artists working the pop end of the early-1970s singer/songwriter sound, and YOU DON"T MESS AROUND WITH JIM is the album that made him a star. His warm, guy-next-door vocal style wraps itself invitingly around such expertly crafted tunes as the broken-hearted ballad "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," the hypnotic "Time in a Bottle," and of course the good-humored tall tale of the bluesy, shuffling title track, on one of the definitive folk-pop albums of the '70s.