Operator (1972)

Performer: Jim Croce                                            Writer: Jim Croce
Highest US Chart Position: #17                            Label: ABC/Dunhill Records
Musicians: Jim Croce, Maury Muehleisen, Tommy West, Joe Macho & Gary Chester

Though this song technically peaked in early December of 1972, for me Jim Croce’s “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)” will always be associated with the summer of 1973, as it was still in heavy rotation then on my local radio station. Croce was just beginning to become a presence on the charts at this point in his career--this song was only his second single--but when “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” went to number one in the summer of ’73 he was poised to become a major force in pop music. His unexpected death in a plane crash in September of 1973, one that also took the life of his lead guitarist Maury Muehleisen, ended what could have been a lengthy career in the vein of someone like James Taylor. For the next year his songs inundated the airwaves and earned him a posthumous number one with “Time in a Bottle” just two months after his death. But it’s his song “Operator” that has the most powerful associations for me. The following summer my parents hired a babysitter to watch me and my brother and sisters while they were at work, as we were all still in grade school. But instead of staying home she used to pile us into her car and drive over to her boyfriend’s house, and we had to sit outside the house listening to the radio while she was inside having sex. Though the song had fallen off the charts six months earlier, I distinctly remember hearing it regularly that summer on her car radio.

The song begins on the downbeat with Croce’s distinctive finger picking and Maury Muehleisen playing the melodic, multi-string lead riff on their acoustic guitars, both playing harmonized descending phrases into the turnaround and then into the first verse. It’s a nice interplay, and Muehleisen adds similar multi-string material between the lines of the first verse, the narrator at a pay phone asking the operator to place a call for him. The minor key is perfect for the haunting story, as Croce’s character tells the operator the story of his ex-girlfriend who left him for his ex-best friend and moved to L.A. Halfway through the verse, Joe Macho on bass doubles the descending run on the turnaround and by the time the second verse turns into an extended chorus Tommy West and Gary Chester have also joined the group on piano and drums respectively. The chorus ends with the subtitle of the song, “But that’s not the way it feels,” while the word “Operator” is only sung at the beginning of each verse. Since that’s the most distinctive word in the lyrics, however, it was a wise choice to use that for the title. The second time through the introduction the whole band plays, and on the second verse Croce’s character has trouble dialing the number through his tears. The second time through the chorus Croce is joined by Muehleisen and producer Terry Cashman on harmony vocals, and it extends on a short vamp for a few bars before the last verse and chorus when the caller gives up and tells the operator she can “keep the dime.” A final turn through the introduction ends the song.

The song is brilliantly conceived, from Croce’s tragic lyrics to the propulsive beat that belies the heartbreaking story. The arc of his lyrics are remarkable, from the initial confidence of the man who wants to call his former lover in order to let her know how well he’s doing, to the tears that cloud his eyes as he tries to dial, to the final confession that her leaving has actually devastated him. But the thing that elevates the production to something extraordinary is Maury Muehleisen’s lead work and the way that it is woven in and around the entire song. Discounting a self-produced LP that he and his wife made of folk songs in the mid sixties, the song came from Croce’s first LP, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim. The title track had been released in June the previous summer, and the follow up in late August. It entered the Hot 100 in mid October at number 78. Three weeks later it entered the top 40, and a month after that peaked at number 17 on December 9th, staying on the charts for another three weeks and finally dropping off just before the end of the year. On the B-side of the single is “Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy),” an up tempo number about a lovable roguish driver in the musical mold of “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues.” Jim Croce’s “Operator” is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching songs of the decade and easily in my top five songs of all time.