Who wrote if i were a carpenter

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If I Were a Carpenter may refer to:

• "If I Were a Carpenter" (song), a song composed by Tim Hardin and popularized by Bobby Darin
• If I Were a Carpenter (Bobby Darin album), a 1966 album by Bobby Darin
• If I Were a Carpenter (tribute album), a tribute album to The Carpenters
• "If I Were a Carpenter", an episode of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title If I Were a Carpenter.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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Songfacts®:

• This was written by the folk singer Tim Hardin, who performed it at Woodstock in 1969. Hardin wrote "Reason To Believe" and some other songs that became popular for other artists. He dealt with drug problems and died in 1980 at age 39.

• The lyrics are written from the perspective of a man asking an elegant woman if she would still love and marry him if he was just a carpenter. There may be some biblical meaning, as Jesus was a carpenter.

• It had been three years since Bobby Darin had a hit record. The Beatles had arrived, and if it wasn't English, it didn't sell. Darin was still a very marketable talent; if he recorded a song, it was going to get a fair shot. Two music publishers, Charles Koppleman and Don Rubin, walked into his office one day and played him a song they felt was perfect for him: "Do You Believe in Magic?" After hearing it through one time Bobby was convinced it wasn't hit record material and told them so: "Very cute, but it will never be a hit." That song was eventually pitched to The Lovin' Spoonful and became a hit. Several months went by and these same guys came back by Bobby's office and played him another song they thought was perfect for him: "Summer in the City." Again, Bobby didn't like the song and turned it down. That one also went to The Lovin' Spoonful and sold over two and a half million records. More time went by and the two men called on Bobby a third time. Before they sat down he said, "I don't care what you got! I'm gonna record it," and he did. They pitched him "If I Were A Carpenter" and It became Darin's last big hit. Darin died in 1973 at age 37.

• According to Mojo magazine February 2012, the song was partly inspired by engineer John Judnich, who built Hardin a small recording setup in fellow junkie Lenny Bruce's Sunset Plaza house.

• Another inspiration was Hardin's love for actress Susan Morss, with whom he appeared on the cover of Tim Hardin 2. As Susan Yardley, she appeared in the Sally Field-starring TV series Gidget.

• Hardin initially raged at the way Darin had appropriated his vocal style for the song, before later admitting to have personally coached Darin through the performance. Hardin later had his biggest hit when he recorded a song Darin wrote called "Simple Song Of Freedom," which made it to #47 in 1969.

• According to an interview with Tim Hardin's pianist Warren Bernhard in Uncut, the reason why the singer-songwriter hated Bobby Darin's lushly orchestrated version was, "He liked the fact people were listening to his music, but he wanted them to hear him doing it."

• Robert Plant covered the song on his 1993 album Fate of Nations; his version reached #33 in the UK. It's a fitting addition to an album in which Plant was trying to get back to the '60s music he was artistically born from.

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Who originally recorded If I were a carpenter?

What did Tim Hardin write?

Who sang If I Were a Carpenter at Woodstock?

Did the Carpenters sing If I were a carpenter?