"Time in a Bottle" was a posthumous number-one hit for
singer-songwriter Jim Croce, reaching the top of the charts in
December 1973, three months after his death in a plane
crash.
The song was originally written for Croce's son, A.J., and
appeared on his first album in 1972,
You Don't Mess Around with Jim. The following year Croce
would shoot to fame with his hit single "Bad Bad Leroy Brown",
just months before the September 20 plane crash.
Time in a Bottlewas later used as the title for a
compilation album of Croce's love songs.
The song started receiving widespread airplay in the fall of
1973, after it was featured in an ABC TV movie,
She Lives!, starring Desi Arnaz Jr. and Season
Hubley.