Time in a Bottle to me, is one of the greatest masterpieces of all time by Jim Croce. The lyrics of the song are incredibly well-written and encapsulate Jim's emotions upon discovering that his wife was expecting their first child :

"If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty, except for the memory of how

They were answered by you"

Time in a Bottle was released in November 1973 while Jim died in a plane crash in September that year. His untimely death at the age of 30 adds another dimension to this song. It makes it come across as the drifting thoughts of a dying man from hankering for more time in the verse part to despondency upon acknowledging the harshness of nature in the chorus. Though it wasn't meant that way but his death infused sorrow in a love song and made it a melancholic ballad.

Verse:

"If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you"

Chorus:

"But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do, once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

That you're the one I want to go through time with"

A.J. Croce for whom this song was written was only 2 years old when his father died. In his last letter to his wife, Jim wrote :

"Give a kiss to my little man and tell him Daddy loves him.

Remember, it's the first sixty years that count and I've got 30 to go."

It's heart-wrenching that he wasn't able to get hold of time to witness his success and build memories with his child.