Tim Hardin
A gentle, soulful singer who owed as much to blues and jazz as folk, Tim Hardin produced an impressive body of work in the late '60s without ever approaching either mass success or the artistic heights of the best singer/songwriters. When future Lovin' Spoonful producer Erik Jacobsen arranged for Hardin's first recordings in the mid-'60s, Hardin was no more than an above-average white blues singer, in the mold of many fellow folkys working the East Coast circuit. By the time of his 1966 debut, however, he was writing confessional folk-rock songs of considerable grace and emotion. The first album's impact was slightly diluted by incompatible string overdubs (against Hardin's wishes), but by the time of his second and best LP, he'd achieved a satisfactory balance between acoustic guitar-based arrangements and subtle string accompaniment. It was the lot of Hardin's work to achieve greater recognition through covers from other singers, such as Rod Stewart (who did "Reason to Believe"), Nico (who covered "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce" on her first album), Scott Walker (who sang "Lady Came From Baltimore"), Fred Neil ("Green Rocky Road" has been credited to both him and Hardin), and especially Bobby Darin, who took "If I Were a Carpenter" into the Top Ten in 1966. Beleaguered by a heroin habit since early in his career, Hardin's drug problems became grave in the late '60s; his commercial prospects grew dimmer, and his albums more erratic, although he did manage to appear at Woodstock. His end was not a pretty one: due to accumulated drug and health problems, as well as a scarcity of new material, he didn't complete any albums after 1973, dying of a drug overdose in 1980.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo
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Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Hang On To A Dream: The Verve Recordings
Rock - Released by Polydor on Jan 1, 1994
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reason To Believe (The Best Of)
Rock - Released by Polydor on Jan 1, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Tim Hardin 2 (Expanded Edition)
Folk - Released by Polydor on Jan 1, 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live In Concert (Expanded Edition)
Pop - Released by Polydor on Nov 1, 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live at Woodstock (Live at Woodstock - 8/15/69)
Rock - Released by Columbia - Legacy on Jul 26, 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Simple Songs Of Freedom: The Tim Hardin Collection
Folk - Released by Columbia - Legacy on Aug 4, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Is Tim Hardin
Pop - Released by Rhino - Elektra on Jan 1, 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best of Tim Hardin
Rock - Released by Polydor on Jan 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Painted Head (Album Version)
Pop/Rock - Released by Columbia on Aug 10, 1972
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suite For Susan Moore and Damian: We Are One, One, All In One
Folk - Released by Columbia - Legacy on Nov 19, 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tim Hardin 3 Live In Concert (Live At Town Hall, New York City / 1968)
Rock - Released by Verve Reissues on Nov 1, 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -