Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Ingrid Croce

Members

Ingrid Croce:

RIYL

Jim Croce
Sponsored

“When I was growing up, I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast,” says Ingrid Croce, who recalls the first record she ever bought as “Either ‘Mack the Knife,’ by Bobby Darin, or ‘Rockin’ Robin,’ by Bobby Day. I was 11 or 12...[I also had] a 78 of ‘Tutti Frutti,’ by Little Richard.”

Asked who in her family she most takes after, she says “My dad, Dr. Sidney Jacobson, and my mom Shirley. I’m equal parts of them both. My mom was a piano player who had her own local TV show, The Magic Lady, and I would sing for her until she died when I was 15. She was also magic at catering parties. My dad passed away when I was 19, but his humanity, work ethic, and excellence are what I strive to achieve every day.”

As for her first husband, singer/songwriter Jim Croce, “When Jim and I fell crazy in love, we were just kids,” she recalls. “When we met in the early ’60s, I was a teenager, and Jim was a sophomore at Villanova University. Music brought us together, and it was the music business that not only tested our relationship but plagued it, constantly challenging our survival.”

She and Croce were soon singing together as a duo. “Because I had suffered through my parents’ divorce and moved from school to school, I longed for stability. I recognized that playing music gave Jim confidence, and I liked the feeling of singing with him. He was a good teacher, and I was a good student. I hoped in time to become something more.” Her hopes were more than realized. They married, as well as recorded a 1969 album together for Capitol Records.

“I would have loved singing with Jim forever. It was like making love. Well, almost.”

The Croces, with their son A.J. (now a successful recording artist), had barely settled his family in San Diego when he perished in a plane crash September 20, 1973, at the age of 30.

A.J. Croce was a week past his second birthday, his father died. A few years after A.J. and his mother Ingrid arrived in San Diego, he developed a brain tumor that cost him his eyesight. This was the beginning of what would become a success story for this nearly native San Diegan.

By his early teens, A.J. Croce had regained most of the vision in his left eye and become an accomplished piano player and songsmith. Supporting his musical endeavors was his mom, Ingrid.

Beginning in 1974, Ingrid helped open a new Point Loma children’s school, wrote a children’s book (Mirandome), and recorded a couple of solo albums, until tumors on her vocal chords sidelined her music career in 1984.

The following year, she launched Croce’s nightclub and restaurant, an early linchpin in downtown’s unlikely transition from sailors-on-shore-leave decadence to Gaslamp glitterati.

In summer 2011, a UK reissue of Ingrid and Jim Croce’s 1968 album Croce, reissued by Cherry Red Records, rated three stars and a good review in Record Collector magazine, issue #389.

As of 2012, her twin sister Phyllis works in fashion jewelry at Nordstrom’s Fashion Valley. A new biography, I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story, co-written by Ingrid Croce and her second husband Jimmy Rock, hit bookstores in summer 2012.

Ingrid told the Reader “Our goal was to tell the story of Jim Croce for his fans, and for folks to understand where Jim’s songs came from.”

Asked what she thinks is the moist underrated Jim Croce song, she says “This one’s hard to answer because there are several. But to name a few, ‘Box #10,’ ‘Workin’ at the Carwash Blues,’ and ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way’ are all somewhat obscure, and they should be classics. They truly articulate the human condition in under two-and-a-half minutes. Not an easy task.”

Sponsored

Upcoming Local Shows

No shows scheduled

Post a show
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.