Jim Croce

When acoustic guitar-strumming storytellers ruled pop radio, hit-maker Jim Croce brought a sly huckster's grin to the earnest singer-songwriter scene, with wisecracking tall tales of larger-than-life characters like "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and the pool-shooting, tough-talking bully of "You Don't Mess Around With Jim." But Croce could tug mightily on the heartstrings, too, without sinking into sentimentality. His precision-tooled portraits of love lost ("Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)"), won ("Time In a Bottle"), and blown to smithereens ("One Less Set of Footsteps") all glow with a warm humanity and guy-next-door easiness. So, whether you love the Jim Croce who spun grin-worthy shaggy-dog stories or the one who turned pangs of passion into pure pop poetry — or both — you'll find the master songsmith's biggest tuneful triumphs right here.