<Table> <Tr> <Td> "I Got a Name" (1973) </Td> <Td> "Time in a Bottle" (1973) </Td> <Td> "It Doesn't Have to Be That Way" (1973) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "I Got a Name" (1973) </Td> <Td> "Time in a Bottle" (1973) </Td> <Td> "It Doesn't Have to Be That Way" (1973) </Td> </Tr> <P> "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, 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 . </P> <P> The arrangement features a harpsichord that producer Tommy West discovered had been left in the mixing studio: </P>

Jim croce time in a bottle release date