Time in a Bottle

Infobox Single
Name = Time in a Bottle


Artist = Jim Croce
from Album = You Don't Mess Around with Jim
Recorded = 1972
Length =
Genre = Folk rock
Label = ABC Records
Writer = Jim Croce
Producer = | Chart position =
* #1 (US Hot 100)"Time in a Bottle" was a posthumous #1 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, written for his son A.J. Croce, appeared on his first album in 1972, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim". Croce would subsequently shoot to fame with his summer 1973 hit single "Bad Bad Leroy Brown", just months before a plane crash on September 20 of that year. "Time in a Bottle" was 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) TV movie, "She Lives!", that starred Desi Arnaz Jr. and Season Hubley.

The song was covered in Spanish by Ricardo Arjona. It was also used on an episode of "The Muppet Show", sung by a whatnot Muppet voiced by Jim Henson.

Maureen McCormick sang the song in an episode of "The Brady Bunch Hour."

The song served as the title and theme song to a story-arc of the American soap-opera, "Port Charles." In the storyline, which ran from March through May of 2001, the character of Frank Scanlon is able to communicate to a girl from the year 1973. The girl turns out to be the mother of his girlfriend Karen Wexler. Through a series of events, Frank accidentally prevents Karen from being conceived. Frank travels back to 1973 to correct the timeline.

"Time in a Bottle" was also covered by Eddie Kendricks (ex-Temptations) on his 1974 album "For You" (Tamla/Motown 335)

"Time In a Bottle" was sung by Bo Bice from American Idol."Time in a Bottle" was performed on episode 207 of "The Muppet Show" by a series of Whatnots meant to be a chemist at different ages. The chemist would drink a potion and "become younger" after each verse until he reverted to his initial age to sing the final line of the song.

The song also featured on the Heartbeat Episode 'Thief in the Night' first transmitted in 1995 when Kate died.

The song's title (though not the song itself) is referenced in a commercial for Zyrtec which aired in 2008.