by William Ruhlmann
Croce's debut ABC album was also his commercial breakthrough, topping the charts for five weeks, largely due to the comic, up-tempo title tune, a story song about competing pool hustlers, although Croce also reached the Top 20 with the change-of-pace ballad &Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels).& Just after his death, ABC issued the track &Time in a Bottle,& and a newly ironic message propelled it to number one.