WATCH – A reason to believe –
Dec. 29, 2020 – After moving to Los Angeles in 1965, he met actress Susan Yardley Morss (known professionally as Susan Yardley), and moved back to New York with her. He signed to the Verve Forecast label, and produced his first authorized album, Tim Hardin 1 in 1966 which contained “Reason To Believe” and the ballad “Misty Roses”, which received Top 40 radio play.
Tim Hardin 2 was released in 1967; it contained “If I Were a Carpenter”. A British tour was cut short after Hardin contracted pleurisy.
An album entitled This is Tim Hardin, featuring covers of “House of the Rising Sun”, Fred Neil’s “Blues on the Ceiling” and Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man”, among others, appeared in 1967, on the Atco label. The liner notes indicate that the songs were recorded in 1963–1964, well prior to the release of Tim Hardin 1. In 1968, Verve released Tim Hardin 3 Live in Concert, a collection of live recordings along with re-makes of previous songs. It was followed by Tim Hardin 4, another collection of blues-influenced tracks believed to date from the same period as This is Tim Hardin. In September 1968 he and Van Morrison shared a bill at the Cafe au Go Go, at which each performed an acoustic set.
In 1969, Hardin again signed with Columbia and had one of his few commercial successes, as a non-LP single of Bobby Darin’s “Simple Song of Freedom” reached the US Top 50. Hardin did not tour in support of this single—his heroin use and stage fright made his live performances erratic.
Also in 1969 he appeared at the Woodstock Festival, where he sang “If I Were a Carpenter” solo and played a set of his music while backed by a full band. None of his performances were included in the documentary film or the original soundtrack album. His performance of “If I Were a Carpenter” was included on the 1994 box-set Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music.
