Some of my earliest, fondest memories of listening to the radio are of Jim Croce and "You Don't Mess Around With Jim." I had just discovered popular music when Croce hit it big, and his novelty songs ("Bad Bad Leroy Brown," "Workin' At The Car Wash Blues") tickled my funny bone and were catchy as hell. His softer side ("Time In A Bottle," "Operator") was nice, too. As I got older, I came to appreciate the fine line that Croce walked; those were no mere novelties - they were finely drawn stories that rarely resorted to parody - and his ballads were tender without being maudlin. Even as an adolescent, I was deeply saddened by Croce's death in 1973 at age 30, the victim of a plane crash that also took his talented guitarist/sidekick Maury Muehleisen.

The 50th Anniversary Collection is about all the Jim Croce anybody would want - and it's damn near complete. The 2-CD set has every single track released on Croce's three ABC albums (You Don't Mess Around With Jim, Life & Times, and I Gotta Name) as well as a good portion of his early work (best known from the 1975 reissue The Faces I've Been). It's also touchingly annotated by Croce's widow, Ingrid. Audiophiles will dig DCC's two gold disc compilations (Words & Music and You Don't Mess Around With Jim), but casual fans will want the old Photographs & Memories: His Greatest Hits. Better values, though, are the budget UK imports, The Ultimate Collection (Recall) or Time In A Bottle: Definitive Collection (Essential).