The Meaning Behind “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce

Jim Croce didn’t live to see the success of “Time in a Bottle.” The singer died in a plane crash in September of 1973. The song had been recorded years earlier and appeared on Croce’s first album, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. It’s a timeless message about how precious life is, and how we all need to appreciate what we have while we have it. The song’s meaning lies in the message that the most important thing we have is time.

“Time in a Bottle” was used effectively in a made-for-TV movie about a woman’s battle against cancer and became the third song to posthumously become a Billboard No. 1 hit, after Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” and Janis Joplin’s” Me and Bobby McGee.”

Inspiration

In December 1970, Croce’s wife, Ingrid, shared the news she was expecting. The couple had been married for five years, and the inspiration for the song came from the anticipation of a new addition to the family. Croce had been working three jobs and could not devote enough time to his music. Ingrid recounted in The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits that she entered a recipe in a Pillsbury baking competition the same night she informed her husband of her pregnancy. Croce sat down that same night and wrote the song.

A Beautiful Poem

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day ’til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure, and then
Again, I would spend them with you

The song, featured on Croce’s debut album, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, was not originally released as a single. The title track, however, reached No. 8, followed by “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” which hit No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. Croce’s second album, Life and Times, yielded “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” which topped the chart. At the time, “Time in A Bottle” was nothing more than a footnote with an interesting origin story.

[RELATED: Behind the Death of Jim Croce]

A Love Song

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go through time with

In 1973, “Time in a Bottle” was exposed to a new audience when it appeared in the film She Lives, a touching story of a young couple (Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Season Hubley) who fall in love and then face a cancer diagnosis. Throughout the movie, Hubley asks where her Croce record is. 

In a scene where Arnaz Jr. calls her on the phone, the song begins to play and she exclaims, “You found my Croce record!”

“No, I bought a new one,” he answers.

The song plays entirely as they remain silent on the phone, bringing the song and the lyrics to the center of the story. The movie aired on CBS just eight days before Croce’s life was cut short. On September 20, 1973, Croce’s plane crashed into a tree as it was taking off. There were no survivors.

Number One

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory of how they were answered by you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go through time with

Television stations received many calls from viewers asking where they could purchase the song. Radio stations started playing “Time in a Bottle” in response to the movie’s success, and with Croce’s death, ABC Records decided to re-release it as a single. 14 weeks after the plane crash, the song became Croce’s second No.1 hit. It has since been used in movies, television shows, and commercials with a timeless message and beautiful melody that continues to reach listeners today.

I’d save every day like a treasure, and then
Again, I would spend them with you

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images