Is Jim Croce singing about Leroy Brown or Jim Walker?

Only one of these men can be the Treetop Lover.

 

If Jim Croce is singing about an evil man, you've got a one-in-two chance of guessing who that man is. "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown" and "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" are two of Croce's most famous songs. In this quiz, we're giving you some information provided about these men in the lyrics, and it's your job to tell us who we're describing.

  1. This man is the baddest man in the whole town.
  2. You don't mess around with this guy.
  3. You can find this man on 42nd Street.
  4. He's got a razor in his shoe.
  5. His nickname is "Treetop Lover" or, if you're a man, "Sir."
  6. Who got caught messing around with Doris?
  7. This man drives a custom Continental.
  8. His nickname is "Boss"
  9. He likes to gamble and play dice.
  10. Who was bested by a country boy from south Alabama?
  11. He's meaner than a junkyard dog.
  12. This man drives a drop top Cadillac.
  13. He likes to play pool.

Is Jim Croce singing about Leroy Brown or Jim Walker?

Your Result...

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75 Comments

rahaindy 7 months ago
I can’t believe I missed 2. My favorite artist
DoctorSavage 7 months ago
13/13 one of my favorite singers as a kid
Ready2go 7 months ago
11/13. Doesn't seem like 50 years since he passed.
Wendy57 7 months ago
13/13
Jim Croce RIP. One of my favorites.
My first serious boyfriend dedicated
Time in a Bottle to me on the radio.
Very fond memories. 😘
CaroleThorpe 7 months ago
You got 13 out of 13
Woah! I wouldn't want to mess around with you!
justjeff 7 months ago
8/13... The more I ran through the lyrics in my mind, the more I got blinssided. I do wonder if Croce loosely based his story-song on the earlier hit by the Olympics in 1960 called "Big Boy Pete"... It's a very similar plot line... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7_TTR6b1Q

The song was originally written and recorded by Don and Dewey (Don Harris and Dewey Terry) and released on Specialty Records in 1959. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIoBOfTZ3s8

If the melody seems *very* familiar to you, the Kingsmen kind of ripped it off for their 1965 hit "Jolly Green Giant"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__FeXIT21AM

While they might have settled any royalty issues with Don and Dewey, Libby wasn't to happy with them, and went after them...

According to songfacts: "Libby Foods, owners of Green Giant, wasn't too sure what to make of the song. The West Coast office sent the group boxes of vegetables to give away at concerts, the East Coast office sued the Kingsmen for 'defamation'..."
Coldnorth justjeff 7 months ago
If it says Libby Libby Libby on the Label Label Label you will love it on your table table table if it says Libby Libby Libby on the Label Label Label. sorry that was their jingle and if ya don’t watch out it will still stick in your head. Lol
justjeff 7 months ago
This comment has been removed.
justjeff daDoctah 7 months ago
Sorry, but that's incorrect. The Marathons were actually the Vibrations. You can research this if you doubt me. The fact that they both had releases on Richard Vaughn's Arvee label might have confused you about who was who...
justjeff justjeff 7 months ago
Here's some comments from the web site for Both Sides Now Publications:

"The other Arvee hit maker was the Marathons, who scored with "Peanut Butter" in 1961. The Marathons had some, if not total, personnel overlap with the Vibrations on Checker (who had in 1956 been known as the Jayhawks of "Stranded in the Jungle" fame on Flash Records). Checker acquired the "Peanut Butter" master through contract-infringement litigation, and Arvee assembled a new group with that name for subsequent releases, including the album. "Peanut Butter," was a tongue-in-cheek (...sorry) rewrite of the words of the Olympics' "(Baby) Hully Gully." In fact, this wasn't the only time an Olympics hit was rewritten; the Kingsmen's 1965 hit "Jolly Green Giant" was a rewrite of "Big Boy Pete" (written and first recorded by Don & Dewey on Specialty)."
justjeff justjeff 7 months ago
This may either settle or add to the confusion... It's from Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks - in an article about the Olympics:

"Sometime in the mid-70s, Little Star released "Peanut Butter" (by The Original "Olympics"; it's somewhat suspicious that only "Olympics" is in quotes). H.B. Barnum produced the session along with Martin Cooper. (Both of them had written "Peanut Butter" back in 1961; remember that they'd had the Olympics in mind to record it.) The group on the record is probably not the Olympics, however, but whatever singers Barnum could round up for the session; in spite of that, it's really very good. The flip, "Creamy Crunch", is an instrumental (also written by Barnum and Cooper). I'm not sure when the record came out, but the sound of "Creamy Crunch" owes a lot to Van McCoy's "The Hustle", which didn't chart until the spring of 1975, so it couldn't have been before then."

If this is the record you're familiar with, then I see why you thought The Olympics and The Marathons were one and the same...
Dugan 7 months ago
Aced it. You should hear my Croce impression.
Coldnorth Dugan 7 months ago
Would love to hear it. I bet karaoke is fun with his songs. More ballads than song but I love them. So start singing
RelicHominid006 7 months ago
My favorite part of You Don’t Mess Around With Jim is towards the end of the song when Croce is kind of “talk singing” and he says Don’t Go Hustling People Strange to You. That is good advice for pool players and everybody else.
Coldnorth RelicHominid006 7 months ago
Even if you do have a 2 piece custom made pool cue
RelicHominid006 Coldnorth 7 months ago
Lol. Good stuff Coldnorth. Thanks for the chuckle.
Peter_Falk_Fan 7 months ago
11/13 Got the first car wrong, but that helped on the second one.

"Time in a Bottle" is a beautiful love song to his son. It was released as a single posthumously.
Never knew that! It makes that song even sadder!
JeffPaul76 7 months ago
"You got 5 out of 13" "Woah! I wouldn't want to mess around with you!" ---- I got 1, 2, 4, 6, and 12 right. ----Which is really bad for me, because I thought I knew both of those songs pretty well.
Coldnorth JeffPaul76 7 months ago
Gotta sing the songs with the questions
GTStang08 7 months ago
11/13...Being a bit more familiar with Leroy helped I guess. 11 out of 13...this one went beyond "10"...yuk yuk!
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