quote:
Here are some factors that could explain his appearance:

Facial Hair His distinctive beard and mustache likely made him appear older than his actual age.

Travel and Performances As a traveling musician, he performed in many different environments, including clubs that might have contributed to his appearance.

Style of the Era Musicians from the 1970s often had a more rugged, mature look, especially those who were not polished pop stars.

"Working Man's" Image Croce cultivated a down-to-earth, relatable image in his music and public persona, which was reflected in his appearance.

Although he was only 30 years old when he died, his artistic style, coupled with his choice of facial hair, and the typical look of many performing artists of the time, might have given him the appearance of being older.

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Posted by thejudge

Westlake, LA

Member since Sep 2009

15040 posts

Posted on 9/22/25 at 7:41 pm to duckblind56

quote:
LINK

Gunga Din is awesome.

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Posted by BRich

Old Metairie

Member since Aug 2017

2742 posts

Posted on 9/22/25 at 7:57 pm to oleheat

quote:
I've always wondered how big he'd have gotten had he not been taken at such an early age. Still had a profound impact on music....

An interesting thing is that Croce's death helped Jimmy Buffett's career.

Both Jim and Jimmy were on the ABC - Dunhill record label. After Croce's death, the label looked to their next similar thing and began promoting Buffett as a successor. One way they did this was sending a film crew to Key West to create a short promotional film titled "Introducing Jimmy Buffett". The film captured Buffett's life on Key West, showcasing his charming personality and natural fit with the island lifestyle. It was shown in various venues, most notably as a short film before feature films in ABC's chain of movie theaters, further boosting Buffett's profile.

That short film included essentially what we would consider today a music video of "Come Monday" that featured Jimmy's future wife Jane.

Within a year, that song broke the Billboard 100, giving Buffett a minor success, and a few years later he had his first big hit with "Margaritaville"

In an old interview, Jimmy Buffett said he didn't think he would have stayed in the music business and become famous if Jim Croce hadn't passed away.

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Posted by Sunnyvale

Member since Feb 2024

2256 posts

Posted on 9/22/25 at 7:59 pm to tigerfan84

Croce, Jane Manfield, and Lynyrd Skynyrd all died in or immeditly after leaving Louisiana.

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Posted by tigerfan84

Member since Dec 2003

25779 posts

Posted on 9/22/25 at 8:48 pm to Sunnyvale

Skynyrd was on the way to Baton Rouge.

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Posted by HubbaBubba

North of DFW, TX

Member since Oct 2010

50772 posts

Posted on 9/22/25 at 10:31 pm to tigerfan84

I remember the night he died. I was a volunteer at a crisis intervention center on Dalzell Street in Shreveport named Satori House. We got a lot of drug overdose cases and tried to help people who contemplated suicide or calls to identify a drug from a PDx manual so someone would know if they were taking a quaalude or a more dangerous drug. Lots of people called in tripping out on blotter and needing some reality from someone talking to them to keep them from stripping naked and running into traffic. Anyway, I can see it clearly and and I was staffing the phones that night and a girl named Dina came in and asked if we'd heard the news, and that's how I found out.

My sister had a ticket and was going with her friends the next day. Stupid of her, she lost them or tossed them.

This post was edited on 9/22/25 at 10:33 pm

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Posted by Mizz-SEC