Jim Croce

By 1973, Jim Croce was America's favorite new singer-songwriter, a master at both tender, sometimes pained ballads and tough, working-class folk-rockers. The title track is the only Croce hit that he didn't write (it's a Gimble-Fox movie theme), though he penned "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" for his wife after an argument they had about their continued poverty. The money was about to start rolling in, but, just as America was getting used to Croce's tough, Sicilian looks, Frito Bandito-style mustache and perfect AM radio songs, it was all over. Croce died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973.