Customer Reviews

Reason to Believe: Best of

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Tim Hardin was a gifted song craftsman who led a troubled life offstage. The purity of his voice and his unique ability to convey emotion in his singing, make Hardin one of the wonders of popular music in the 1960s. His first two albums are the crown jewels of his recorded legacy. The understated arrangements of the first two albums make him the progenitor of what we now call chamber pop. If you don't beleive that listen to the arrangements and vocals of Stuart Staples of Tindersticks.

This Polydor collection of Tim Hardin trumps any of the more expensive anthologies, simply because it contains material only from Tim Hardin 1 and Tim Hardin 2. You don't have to pay big bucks to get a bunch of songs from his later works, many of which are overproduced and wallow in pathos. If you like Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake or Tindersticks, give this album a listen. His nakedly emotional vocals, his tender song writting and the shimmering production values will seduce you.

In the late sixties, early seventies, I had a Tim Hardin LP album that I played to death. It was my all time favorite LP. As technological advances were made and CDs came to the fore, it was consigned to a box with all my other LP albums. I was, therefore, thrilled to find this CD with all my Tim Hardin favorites. I was not disappointed by it. It is, without a doubt, my favorite CD.

Tim Hardin was a very gifted musician, singer, and songwriter. His music is a celebration of the human spirit which is ironic, considering that his own life ended so tragically from a drug over dose. His songs often sung by others, Tim Hardin did it best. A cornucopia of emotion and sound, there is not a bad song on this entire CD. It is quintessential Tim Hardin.

While some purists may object to the new orchestral arrangement on this CD, it only enhances already great music. What makes it unique is Tim Hardin himself, a truly gifted artist with no equal. A folksinger who shaded his music with blues and jazz overtones, Tim Hardin sang with a poignancy that will touch your heart. At times romantic and lyrical, other times positively soulful, Tim Hardin was an original.

When he sang his music, Tim Hardin spoke to your very soul. It is this quality, and not the musical arrangement, that makes his music transcend the passage of time. This is a truly great CD.

what always staggers me about hardin is the breathtaking beauty and simplicity of his recordings. he was a remarkable songwriter and vocalist, his arrangements are wonderful too. my only complaint about this anthology is that it is too short. it left me craving more and i'll definitely look into more by this unfortunately relatively obscure singer. still, this is a fine introduction to his work. if you like folk/rock/blues/country etc.songwriters of the 60's you'll love tim hardin. just about all of these tracks are first rate.

This re-release of the original Verve "Tim Hardin 2" covers the best-known songs of this '60s singer/songwriter. The addition of strings and orchestral arrangement to tunes that are basically coffehouse solos is tasteful, and this collection captures Tim at the height of his short career. His ability to put emotion into his voice makes this album powerful even thirty years after it was recorded. Listen to "Reason to Believe" or "Tribute to Hank Williams" and you understand that Tim, like Hank, "sang from the heart for his fans."

If you are looking for a CD copy of Hardin's 1968 LP album, "Tim Hardin 3: Live in Concert" with sidemen Mike Mainieri, Eddie Gomez, Don McDonald, et.al., look elsewhere. This isn't it. Same tunes and same names, but that is the only similarity between the CD and the LP. CD has orchestra versions complete with violins and that couldn't be further from Hardin's style, especially with the cited sidemen. In short, the CD is a terrible version of Tim Hardin's work....

Although he was an influential personality on the 1960s folk circuit, Hardin had little success as a recording artist. He's better known as a songwriter since other artists had hits with many of his compositions.

In 1962 he recorded This Is Tim Hardin, which established his style: folk with a strong jazz and blues influence. A term like smoky folk comes to mind, a bit like the UK artist Nick Drake.

His third album, the classic Tim Hardin 2 included the powerful and evocative track Reason To Believe that, as double A Side with Maggie May, toped the British and American charts for Rod Stewart in 1971.

The folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary also recorded this song. The other classic on the album, If I Were A Carpenter, was a top ten hit for Bobby Darin. Incidentally Hardin's only hit single was a Darin composition Sing A Simple Song Of Freedom (1969).

If I Were A Carpenter was revived by The Four Tops in 1968 and by Johnny Cash and June Carter in 1970. Other artists who had hits with Hardin's songs include Johnny Mathis (Misty Roses), Scott Walker (Black Sheep Boy) and The Nice (Hang On To A Dream).

On December 29, 1980, during the recording sessions of his final work, he died of an overdose. Hardin was 39 years old and had survived his one-time contemporaries Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix by a decade.

Besides the aforementioned songs, my other favorite includes the beautiful Red Balloon. My only complaint with this compilation is that it omits Hardin's exquisite interpretation of Leonard Cohen's Bird on a Wire.

There is great beauty in Hardin's subtle but expressive vocal style. Like Nick Drake, he remains an obscure singer-songwriter with roots in the 1960s, who is well worth investigating if you like authentic, moving music.

Tim Hardin Songbook

Songs and Poetry

I first came across this CD at my local library and had remembered reading that Tim was one of the greatest singer-songwriters that most people have never heard, so I took the disc home. I was blown away from moment I first heard his voice. I have a massive musical library, but I can say without reservation that Tim's my favorite singer. The man had the gift of pure expression and he truly channels both the beauty and tragedy of life every time you listen to his work.

I have a collection of his CD's now, but this is still the best compilation and the one I usually reach for. I can't imagine anyone listening to this CD and not being moved and I definitely recommend it.

As the previous reviewer stated, this album is awesome. However, the rendition of Reason To Believe was best done by The Youngbloods in the late 60's.

I find myself pulling this CD out often. The tunes are short, simple, melodic and to the point.

Back in 1967, with my heart freshly tromped by my first love, I spent months alone, caressing my guitar, and absorbing the healing tenderness of Tim Hardin's beautifully intimate songs. Sharing deeply, his painful disillusionments with love---his sense of loss and injustice---I licked my wounds, gradually got back on my feet, and moved on to love again, living to this ripe old age. Tim didn't make it. How many of us leaned on Tim's songs for support & understanding back in those days before there was a family counseling center on every block? They're all here, 'Reason To Believe', 'How Can We Hang On To A Dream?', 'It'll Never Happen Again', 'Misty Roses', Don't Make Promises', 'If I were A Carpenter', 'Black Sheep Boy', 'Green Rocky Road*', 'How Long*?', 'Lady Came From Baltimore' and more... (*sweet harmonica by John Sebastian on these two) Tim's soothing music, haunting voice, and lovely words give us hope that even the black sheep among us might smell the misty roses, and find reason to believe we can hang on to our dreams. Words of wisdom for survival, held up by a drowning man, generous loving words of eternal strength. Thanks Tim...

I keep looking up this album and forgetting that there is only one review, so I said, "Hey, why don't I write one?" This is one of those rare albums that will separate into favorites and lesser favorites and the only thing you have against the lesser favorites is that they are merely excellent and not transcendent. My brother got me into this album and I realized that some of the songs he loved were ones that I only heard when I played the album straight through. I hadn't gotten past listening to my favorites over and over again. These are: Reason to Believe, Red Balloon, Black Sheep Boy, Green Rocky Road and Lady Came from Baltimore.

The thing about this album is that, when I first listen to it, it was like nothing I had ever heard. It has a transcendent quality that I can only compare to the best Van Morrison. While somewhat Van-like, it fits more closely in the singer-songwriter genre. With the loose, jazzy feel that Tim added to standard folk it puts him in the same category with Tim Buckley and Nick Drake, two guys who are probably just as underappreciated. Maybe a better comparison would be "the perfect offspring of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan."

Someone who has never heard Tim Hardin might get some hints from the songs that are well-known. "Reason to Believe" has been covered several times, most notably by Rod Stewart. Unfortunately Rod missed the boat on delivering the emotional wallop of the original. Bobby Darin, on the other hand, does a brilliant job on his version of "If I Were a Carpenter" and if you know Darin's version it gives a clue as to what Hardin is all about.

I'm not a big fan of greatest hits albums, but if you want to hear the stuff on this album without searching low and high you must buy this disc. Anyway, the album flows seamlessly and has none of the hodgepode feel of a "best of" album.

Let me close by saying that I almost never review albums on Amazon.com because I don't want to contribute to the glut of five-star reviews. But, today, I was listening to Tim and I thought how much I would prefer to stay home and listen to this album 10 straight times to coming to work. I feel that strongly about it.