Jim Croce Albums Earmarked for Reissue

1972's You Don't Mess Around With Jim and the following year's Life and Times have never been available in that format, while 1973's I Got a Name was issued on CD, but has been out of print for the better part of the decade.

“For eight years, I've been trying to get the permission to re-release my dad's three albums on ABC Records," Croce's son AJ tells Billboard.com. “And just last week, I got the OK. So in September, they're going to be available for the first time on CD, and then also in their original form, on vinyl."

These three releases spawned Jim Croce's best-known songs, including the hits “Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," “You Don't Mess Around with Jim," “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," “Photographs and Memories," “Time in a Bottle," and “I Got A Name," among others. “I Got a Name" was released the day after he died in a Sept. 20, 1973, plane crash at the age of 30.

In addition, there are a couple of Jim Croce-related film projects on the horizon. “One of them is underway -- we're working with [producer] Warren Zide on a project that he approached us about, making a movie around the character Leroy Brown," AJ says. “It's sort of an action/comedy thing. The other one is much more serious, and could be a really nice movie. It's a bio."

The younger Croce has new music in the works as well. His seventh studio album, “Cage of Muses," is due later this year on his own Seedling label. The set was recorded in the Dust Brothers' studio, the Boat, in Silverlake, Calif. “It had been a long time since I recorded an album live in the studio. And because I had a tight budget, I decided that I would do it live," he says. “As far as the songs were concerned, they were all of these pieces that I had for different periods of time, and I kept coming back to these songs for one reason or another. They're songs that I didn't give up on."

Croce plans on supporting the album with live dates. “I'm going to be touring the U.S. and Europe," he says. “I don't tour as much as I used to, but I'm hoping to do 50 shows this year. It will be through the fall, winter and spring."