Jack Horton is claiming a legacy. On his new single, a reimagining of Jim Croce's 1972 hit "Operator," Horton jumps out of the comfort of his original songwriting corner to honor a musical hero. For Croce fans and initiates, this is no mere cover but a conversation across generations woven with honesty, orchestral muscle, and soulful finesse.
A bilingual singer-songwriter whose music has reached the streets of Tokyo and the U.S.A., Jack Horton has a voice crafted from an unlikely journey through law and politics into the untrammeled beauty of Americana storytelling. That authenticity shines through in this rendition, which swaps the song's original acoustic folk guitar for a linen-wrapped, piano-based arrangement adorned lushly with dramatic symphonic textures.
This is a tribute to Croce. And he does so humbly and attentively, stepping out of the way to let the timeless story of love, loss, and longing be told anew. Horton's warm voice gives an air of introspection, which suggests someone who's lived a little more, loved a little harder, and now looks back with quiet wisdom. At the end of the day, there is nothing more American than that.
Horton's "Operator" is intimate, cinematic, and reverent. The choice to make the track piano-led and for grandiose orchestral parts to get thrown in timpani only deepens that emotional connection to the original without dwarfing it. It's reverent rather than a wholesale reinvention that honors Croce's soulful honesty while allowing Horton's musical identity to permeate every phrase.
Horton is an infrequent step, and he reserves for songs he's particularly passionate about. His version of "Operator" is a personal thank you letter expanded into verse in appreciation of one artist whose music played such a significant role. For the 50th anniversary of Jim Croce's death, Jack Horton's "Operator" feels like a hand reaching back through the years to remind us that the best songs never really become old. They simply unearth new voices to further the story.
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