Newsletter July 2023

Carl’s Corner

by Carl Amari

Created by Blake Edwards (of “Pink Panther” fame), Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC radio in 1949 starring film actor and crooner Dick Powell. Powell had recently played ‘Philip Marlowe’ in the popular RKO film Murder My Sweet and jumped at the chance to play a suave detective on radio.

Richard Diamond was a light-hearted New York-based private eye who enjoyed ribbing the cops and singing songs to his millionairess girlfriend, Helen Asher (played by Virginia Gregg). It’s theme “Leave it to Love” was expertly whistled by Powell at the beginning of each episode.

Powell’s production company (Four Star Television) produced a TV version of Richard Diamond, Private Detective for CBS in 1957. David Janssen, who would later gain fame as Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive, was cast as TV’s Richard Diamond. Sam, Diamond’s beautiful secretary in the TV series, was only shown from the waist down. Those beautiful legs belonged to Mary Tyler Moore, as well as other actresses.

LEND ME YOUR EARS | THIS MONTH’S SONG: TIME IN A BOTTLE by Jim Croce
RELEASED: 1972

by Lisa Wolf

Click here to watch on YouTube. 

“I really believe it’s more about the immortality of life… A. J. [their son, whose pending birth sparked Croce to write the song] might have been the trigger for that song as well as our relationship. I think Jim was a very eclectic songwriter. When he wrote something it usually wasn’t one circumstance that spurred it on. It was a lot of different people and a lot of different circumstances that brought that song together which is why I think his music is so universal. He didn’t just have an experience happen to him and say “I’m gonna write a song about it. He looked at other people, and talked with a lot of other people. He was in a sense a journalist of what was going on at the time.” ~ Ingrid Croce

“Time in a Bottle” was written and performed by Jim Croce. It was released in 1972 as a single from his album “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” The song became one of Croce’s most well-known and beloved compositions. Tragically, Croce’s life was cut short when he died in a plane crash in 1973, just a year after its release.

“Time in a Bottle” was inspired by the birth of Jim Croce’s son, Adrian James Croce, in 1971. Croce wrote the song as a reflection on the passage of time and the desire to capture and preserve precious moments.

The opening lines, “If I could save time in a bottle / The first thing that I’d like to do / Is to save every day till eternity passes away / Just to spend them with you,” convey the theme of cherishing moments and the desire for everlasting love.

“Time in a Bottle” achieved significant commercial success following Jim Croce’s untimely death. In 1973, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it Croce’s second and final number one hit (following “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”)

“Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce has been featured in several movies including “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014), “The Break-Up” (2006) and “Eagle Eye” (2008). It was also performed on episode 207 of The Muppet Show by a series of Whatnots meant to be a chemist at different ages. The chemist, performed by Jim Henson, drinks a potion and becomes younger after each verse. At the end of the song, he reverts back to his initial age.

Click here to watch on Youtube. 

The lyrics and meanings of “Time in a Bottle” still resonate more than 50 years after its initial release. The deeply sad fact that Jim Croce died young and, like the character in his song, never got “enough time” lend poignancy and power to the song’s lyrics and meanings to this day.