Jim & Ingrid Croce - Croce (Jim and Ingrid Croce) (1969)

I just posted Jim Croce's debut album "Facets" from 1966. As I said with that post, I'm posting all of his recorded and available music prior to when he became famous in 1972. There isn't much of it, and it tends to get overlooked. (One exception is the archival release "Home Recordings - Americana" which dates to 1967 but seems widely available and well known, so I don't need to post it here.) Here's the next album in the series.

As I described in my write-up about Croce's 1966 album "Facets," that was an album he recorded and released all by himself, without any record company. Also in 1966, he married a woman named Ingrid who was a talented singer. They became a musical duo and performed in public frequently while they also had day jobs to pay the rent. By 1969, they were ready to record a record together, and this is it. Their profile grew enough by that time that it was released by a major label, Capitol Records. 

Ironically, the limited run of Croce's poorly produced 1966 album did well and sold out, while the much better 1969 album sold poorly, much below expectations. It did so badly that Jim and Ingrid basically dropped out of the music business for a while. (This was helped along by Ingrid getting pregnant and then having a baby, which kept both of them busy.) But in a way, the failure of this album was the key to Croce's later success. He decided to give it one more shot before leaving the music business for good, and he redoubled his songwriting efforts. Not having to tour gave him lots of time to write songs. In this burst of songwriting, he wrote most of the songs on his three hit albums released in 1972 and 1973,

In any case, this album shows his musical skills had drastically improved since his 1966 album. All but two of the songs were written by him either solo or with Ingrid. (The two covers are "the Next Man that I Marry" and "What the Hell.") Croce later realized that the first song here, "Age," was so good that it needed more exposure. So he redid it for his 1973 album "I Got a Name."

Jim Croce dominates this album, but it is a duet album and Ingrid has a prominent role too. She harmonizes with him on every song and occasionally sings lead, especially on the song "The Next Man that I Marry." Her vocals probably won't blow you away, but she certainly was a capable singer. However, for his later albums, Croce continued as a solo artist, even though he stayed happily married to Ingrid until his death in a plane crash in 1973. As far as I know, Ingrid never released any music on her own.

This album is quite short, at only 28 minutes long. Jim and Ingrid did record some other music together around the same time, but I'm saving that for a different album that I'll be posting here.

01 Age (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
02 Spin, Spin, Spin (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
03 I Am Who I Am (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
04 What Do People Do (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
05 Another Day, Another Town (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
06 Vespers (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
07 Big Wheel (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
08 Just Another Day (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
09 The Next Man that I Marry (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
10 What the Hell (Jim & Ingrid Croce)
11 The Man that Is Me (Jim & Ingrid Croce)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15106833/JimC_1969_Crce__JimandIngridCrce_.zip.html

This album languished in obscurity until Jim Croce became a big star in 1972 and 1973. Then it got rereleased multiple times, often with different names (including "Bombs Over Puerto Rico," bizarrely enough) and different album covers. I believe the original album cover was very similar to the one I've included above. It had the same photo in the middle, but the area outside that had a peach color and the only word on it was "Croce." I've chosen this version because it also says "Jim and Ingrid Croce" at the bottom. Technically, "Croce" was the original name of the album, but since that's so vague it's often known as "Jim and Ingrid Croce" instead.