"Roller Derby Queen" by Jim Croce.

OK, girls and boys, back to the 70s: A young struggling Jim Croce had to take odd jobs to pay the bills while trying to launch his singer/songwriter career. One night, at a country and western bar he was playing at, he met a plus-sized woman with a penchant for hair spray who told him about her previous occupation and this inspired him to write this 1973 classic. Her husband was a State Trooper and he was thus afraid to perform the tune locally, fearing for his well-being. Croce's repertoire included many elaborate stories about eccentric people that he had met throughout the years. Unfortunately, he left us shortly after at the age of 30 in a plane crash. Song? Answer: "Roller Derby Queen" by Jim Croce. When I arrived in Philly in 1973 for med school, Jim Croce was a local celebrity. He was born and raised in Upper Darby, PA, a Philadelphia suburb. I bought all of his albums and quickly learned many of his tunes on guitar. Every Wednesday night at Phi Chi Medical Fraternity we had a mid-week party with a sing-along where other frat brothers and I would play. When we played "Roller Derby Queen" everyone would join in (after an Ortlieb or two!). Unfortunately, he died tragically that same year so I never got to see him live. Two of the respiratory therapists at Bryn Mawr Hospital, where I did my surgical internship, grew up with Croce in Upper Darby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD7UqK2GZko The night that I fell in love with a Roller Derby Queen (Round 'n' round, oh round 'n' round) The meanest hunk o' woman That anybody ever seen Down in the arena...

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