Have a listen:
Oh boy, oh boy, this one hits deep.
There’s just something about a song that tells a story.
“Operator” was featured in Jim Croce’s 1972 album You Don’t Mess with Jim.
Croce magically creates a narrative of someone who is on the line with a telephone operator and is trying to connect with a former lover, who’s left him for his best friend. Ouch.
While the melody isn’t your classic sad-song cord progression, the fact that the music is somewhat upbeat – as if to accompany the narrator’s (vain) effort to sound okay with the situation- makes it even more tear-inducing.
The song was inspired by Croce’s time in the National Guard, during which he saw soldiers on base calling their wives on payphones after having received a “Dear John” letter.
Croce’s wife, Ingrid commented on “Operator” in an interview: “Most of [the soldiers] were getting on the phone and they were OK, but some of them were getting these ‘Dear John’ letters, or phone calls. I think that was the most important aspect of the song, because it was just so desperate. You know, ‘I only have a dime’ and ‘You can keep the dime’ because money was very scarce and very precious, and I think if you look at the words to the song there are so many aspects of our generation that are in it.”
Croce’s light voice works so perfectly for the track as it allows the lyrics to take center stage. The lyrics are also so well-crafted that the listener can follow the protagonist’s emotions. His bandmate Maury Muehleisen’s backing vocals and second guitar also add a layer of complexity to the melody.
The song peaked at no. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December that year and spent twelve weeks on the chart.
Both Croce and Muehlseisen died in a plane crash a few months later in Louisiana, minutes after taking off for a concert in Texas.
