As recalled by his sister Mary Muehleisen
Maury met Joe Salviuolo, an Assistant Professor of Communications at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. Maury was a student at Glassboro and he and Joe put together a “Folk Music and Related Forms” concert. That concert took place on February 20, 1969 in Tohill Auditorium on the college campus. Joe was very impressed with Maury’s song-writing ability and enjoyed his performance enough to ask Maury to make a tape of his work to send to his friend Tommy West. Tommy, a record producer in New York, had attended Villanova University with Joe, and Joe felt that Tommy would be the right person to hear this new sound and judge the talent.
Tommy was in partnership with two other singer/songwriters, Terry Cashman and Gene Pistilli, and a lawyer named Phil Kurnit, who had formed two entities – Blendingwell Music and Interrobang Productions.
That spring and summer, Maury busied himself with recording some of the songs he had written. Joe Salviuolo took the tape to Tommy West and, by September 5, 1969, Maury had signed a songwriter’s contract with Blendingwell Music and a recording contract with Interrobang Productions. He recorded seven demos of his songs that very day.
Life remained pretty normal and our family celebrated Maury’s 21st birthday at home with cake and ice cream after dinner on January 14, 1970. The next day, Maury returned to New York and recorded four more demos. By April 1970, Phil Kurnit secured a deal for Maury at Capitol Records, partly owing to the fact that Cashman, Pistilli and West had a recent recording project at that record company. Gene Pistilli left the partnership around this time. Joe Salviuolo decided to quit his teaching position at Glassboro State College to become Maury’s manager.
Maury kept himself occupied that summer with trips to The Hit Factory in New York City to record songs for an album. Toward the end of the summer, when the songs were all recorded, the consensus was that it would be a good idea for Maury to have some backup with him during promotion of his soon-to-be-released solo album. Maury and Joe bounced around a few names, narrowing the list to just one – Jim Croce.
Back in 1959, Tommy West and Joe Salviuolo met as freshman at Villanova University and were juniors in 1961 when Tommy met Jim Croce, a freshman wanting to join the glee club. They immediately bonded and Tommy soon introduced Jim to Joe and they all became close friends. Jim graduated in 1965, married Ingrid Jacobson in 1966, and the two of them formed a singing duo. They were actually the first act that Blendingwell and Interrobang signed in 1969. Croce was the name of an album of songs recorded by Terry Cashman, Gene Pistilli, and Tommy West, and produced by Nick Venet. Venet hurriedly released the album in early 1969, before it was fully mixed, much to the chagrin of Cashman, Pistilli, and West. Merv Frankel was their manager. Jim and Ingrid, discouraged by their lack of success with the album that year, decided to walk away from their contract. They left New York with a bitter feeling in February 1970, deciding to search for some other line of work. Jim took a job driving a gravel truck for a construction company. Joe and Tommy agreed that bringing Jim on as Maury’s backup may restore their previously strong circle and get him “out of the dumps” literally and figuratively.
Maury had been in the company of Jim and Ingrid twice before, once briefly in late 1969 at their Bronx apartment and then several months later in early July 1970 at one of Jim’s nightly gigs at The Riddle Paddock in Lima, Pennsylvania. In mid-August, a meeting was set up for Maury and Jim to get together at the New York offices of Cashman & West to discuss if Maury would like Jim to be his backup player. Maury and Jim had an instantaneous connection and the friendship between them grew to the point where they became almost inseparable. They were somewhat different from one another and yet complemented one another in a unique way. Jim was very impressed with Maury and his music. They immediately began getting together to practice so that Jim could join Maury at his gigs.
Billboard magazine announced the arrival of a new recording artist when Capitol Records released the Gingerbreadd album by Maury Muehleisen in early November 1970. Jim was working his day job, so Maury performed some of his gigs by himself. In November, Maury was featured on WCAU’s Betty Hughes Show, a Philadelphia variety show hosted by the wife of New Jersey’s Governor, Dick Hughes and he was the opening act for Tim Buckley at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. In December, he opened four nights of shows at The Main Point, this time for Jimmy Webb. He was featured once again as a guest on the Betty Hughes Show on Christmas Day. This holiday also brought with it an announcement by Jim that Ingrid was expecting a baby, due in August. By the end of December, Maury was booked to perform at a Multiple Sclerosis Benefit hosted by Gene Arnold of WCAM/Camden, where the Dancette Ballroom in Oaklyn, New Jersey was packed with 2500, a capacity crowd.
There was a Press Party in January 1971 at The Drake Hotel in Philadelphia to promote Maury’s album. Jim would be accompanying Maury at future gigs and they were going to be doing some recording sessions for radio commercials. Maury spent a good bit of time with Jim in Lyndell, with many late nights at the kitchen table – talking, singing, and working on some of Jim’s unfinished songs. Jim became invigorated and newly inspired by his friendship with Maury. Jim and Maury put together a tape of some of these songs and, in early March, mailed the cassette of new recordings to Tommy West.
Tommy immediately played that tape for his partner Terry Cashman, who thought the combination of their sound was fantastic. Maury and Jim were asked to meet them to discuss working together in a different way, singing Jim’s songs and featuring Maury’s lead guitar arrangements. A handshake deal was struck between Maury and Jim that whoever succeeded would take care of the other.
In the meantime, March and April of 1971 were busy. Jim accompanied Maury to New York when he opened for Janis Ian at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village and then as he opened for The Manhattan Transfer at Hunter College. When they performed together, Maury always introduced Jim as “the band” or “my band.” Maury continued to play at local hometown events, singing his songs at the Inaugural Ceremony for the official opening of WNJT-TV 52 and also as a strolling musician at the William Trent House Annual Craft Day.
Phil Kurnit managed to obtain a European record deal for Jim, including the finances that would allow them to begin recording songs for an album. The September dates scheduled for recording had to be postponed. The Croce baby’s August due date came and went, as did most of September.
I can still vividly recall September 28, 1971. Maury and I were sitting in his bedroom talking when the phone rang in the hallway. He jumped up to answer the call and I could tell by his happy bounce that it was the news we were awaiting for the better part of the past month. Jim announced the birth of a baby boy, his spitting image. They named him Adrian James. Maury and Jim were overjoyed. This also meant that they could begin recording at The Hit Factory in New York City on October 5, 1971.
In April 1972, Terry Cashman, Tommy West, and Phil Kurnit were finally able to secure a stateside three-record deal with ABC Records and the first of these three albums – “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” – was released immediately. BNB Associates Ltd., a Beverly Hills management company, named Elliot Abbott as Jim’s manager and Maury and Jim were on a whirlwind path to success.
