Tim Hardin was probably more successful as a songwriter than a musician. his songs,'If I Were A Carpenter" and 'Reason To Believe' achieved more commercial success performed by other people (Bobby Darin, Rod Stewart, respectively). He started out playing blues music in the Greenwich Village area of New York around 1961. His (eponymous) first album came out on the Verve Forecast label in 1966 (there had been an earlier album with Columbia that was shelved) in which he had moved from blues-y to the folk-y music that now defines his career.
From then on he had several albums released but the closest he came to commercial success was a 1969 non single LP of 'Simple Song Of Freedom' which made it into the U.S.'s Top 50. He had quite a crippling stage fright and a burgeoning heroin addiction which resulted in him not touring in support of this single. He stopped writing songs after this period. He moved between England and the U.S. but his addiction had taken over his life. His last album, Nine, was released in the UK in 1973. He sold his writer's rights in the late 70's. At a gig in Seattle in 1979, he could only play 'Georgia On My Mind' over and over again. He died 6 days after his 39th birthday from a heroin and morphine overdose in Los Angeles where he lived as a recluse since 1975.
Reason to Believe
How Can We Hang On To A Dream
First Love Song
Black Sheep Boy
His biggest success, a Bobby Darin song. a 'A Simple Song of Freedom'
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