TIME IN A BOTTLE

 

“Time in a Bottle” is a hit single by singer-songwriter Jim Croce. Croce wrote the lyrics after his wife Ingrid told him she was pregnant with his son, Adrian, in December 1970. It appeared on his 1972 ABC debut album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. ABC originally did not intend to release the song as a single; but when Croce was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, the song’s lyrics, dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time, had additional resonance.

The song subsequently received a large amount of airplay as an album track and demand for a single release built. When it was eventually issued as a 7″, it became his second and final No. 1 hit. After the single had finished its two-week run at the top in early January 1974, the album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim became No. 1 for five weeks. In 1977, “Time in a Bottle” was used as the title for a compilation album of Croce’s love songs.

 

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I’d like to do

Is to save every day till 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

 

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

 

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