Box #10

Album: You Don't Mess Around With Jim (1972)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, a homeless man writes to his parents asking for money. Croce wrote the song when he was dirt poor. With no money for gas, he rode his bike from his apartment in the Bronx to into Manhattan to record a commercial for Big Sur Cigars. After the session, when Jim went to his bike, a homeless guy asked him for a dime so he could buy a cup of coffee, and Jim brought him into a coffee shop to buy him a cup. Over the cup of coffee, this guy told Jim his life story, which became the basis for "Box #10."

    When Croce released the song on his album You Don't Mess Around With Jim, his career took off, but his bank account didn't. Most of the money went to the record company and to Croce's producers; Jim continued to tour until his death on September 20, 1973, which occurred in a plane crash after a show in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

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