Jim Croce performs Operator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5zNW1O9GZc

I remember watching this old TV special. Croce always struck me two ways - I find most of his hits (like Bad Bad Leroy Brown) to be really irritating pseudo-juke joint schlock. But I love virtually all of his ballads. They are almost all sad, occasionally a bit too self-pitying, but often with a wistful worldliness too. Operator is a bit younger in its feeling. A nice tune about a young love gone bad is quite touching in expressing the naivete of the protagonist and the sort of confused unwillingness to accept reality that's affected every young person at one point or another. A delicate little situation that Croce handles quite sweetly.