Jim Croce · 1972 · Behind the Songs
“Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” is Jim Croce at his most quietly devastating.
“Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” is Jim Croce at his most quietly devastating. Released as a single in August 1972 from the album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, it is structured as a phone call: a man asks the operator to help him reach a former lover, then gradually admits that he is not really calling to reconnect. He is calling because he cannot quite let go, and because hearing a stranger’s voice is easier than admitting he is alone.
Croce’s genius here is in the details. The operator is polite and professional, the caller is polite and unraveling, and the conversation reveals more in what is left unsaid than in what is spoken. Maury Muehleisen’s guitar weaves around Croce’s fingerpicking, giving the song a gentle, almost lullaby-like quality that contrasts with its emotional ache. It is a breakup song, but it is also a song about pride — about the stories we tell ourselves, and others, to make loss sound like choice.
The song reached the top twenty in the United States, and it has become one of Croce’s most enduring recordings. It endures because its situation is timeless. Technology has changed, but the feeling has not: the moment when you realize that the person you are trying to reach has already moved on, and that the kindest thing the operator — or anyone — can do is simply listen, and then let you hang up.