''If I Were a Carpenter'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

singer

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music. He started his career as a songwriter for Connie ...

, released in 1966. It was a significant change in direction for Darin considering his previous album (''In a Broadway Bag'') was a collection of

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. T ...

History

Having previously built his career recording mainstream pop music, Darin's musical output became more "folky" as the 1960s progressed. In 1966, he charted with folksinger

Tim Hardin James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk and blues musician and composer. As well as releasing his own material, several of his songs, including " If I Were a Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe", beca ...

's " If I Were a Carpenter". It was Darin's return to the Top 10 after a four-year absence (the single peaked at No. 8 in the US and No. 9 in the UK in 1966). The tracks leaned heavily towards songs by Hardin and

John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969Tim Hardin 2 ''Tim Hardin 2'' is the second album by folk artist Tim Hardin, released in 1967. History The original LP release has a long poem on the back cover by Hardin titled "A Question of Birth..." ''Tim Hardin 2'' contains Hardin's most popular and m ...

''. In his ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

'' review,

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

, stated "Hardin himself was convinced that Darin had copied his vocal style by listening to his yet-to-be-issued version and the album as a whole boasts a production similar to the orchestrated folk-rock heard on the debut (sic) album in question, though it sounds like an inferior copy." Both Darin's ''If I Were a Carpenter'' and Hardin's ''Tim Hardin 2'' were produced by

Charles Koppelman Charles Koppelman (March 30, 1940 – November 25, 2022) was an American musician, music producer, and businessman. He held executive positions at EMI and Steve Madden, and he was Chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. At the time of his ...

and Don Rubin and Koppelman had originally signed Sebastian's band,

The Lovin' Spoonful The Lovin' Spoonful is an American rock band popular during the mid- to late-1960s. Founded in New York City in 1965 by lead singer/songwriter John Sebastian and guitarist Zal Yanovsky, the band is widely known for a number of hits, including ...

. The album reached number 142 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Darin's cover of "Lovin' You" reached the Top 40. ''If I Were a Carpenter'' was reissued in 1998 on the Diablo label combined with Darin's next release, ''Inside Out''.

Reception

Music critic

wrote in his

review "... this is a fair but unexceptional record. Darin falls short of the originals on Buffy St. Marie's "

Until It's Time for You to Go "Until It's Time for You to Go" is a song from the 1965 album '' Many a Mile'' by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. Sainte-Marie included a French-language reworking of the song, "T'es pas un autre", on her 1967 album '' Fire & Flee ...

" and the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream." In fact, aside from "If I Were a Carpenter," the standout is the odd low-charting single "The Girl Who Stood Beside Me," with its odd muted psychedelic bagpipe effects constantly buzzing in the background of an actual fairly strong folk-rock tune."

Track listing

# " If I Were a Carpenter" (

) – 2:19 # "

Reason to Believe "Reason to Believe" is a song written, composed, and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965. It has since been recorded by artists including Bobby Darin in 1966, Karen Dalton also in 1966, Glen Campbell in 1968, the Nitty Gritty ...

" (Hardin) – 2:03 # "Sittin' Here Lovin' You" (

John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969Misty Roses ''Misty Roses'' was an LP album featuring The Sandpipers, released by A&M Records in 1967. The album reached #135 on the Billboard chart and the first track, "Cuando Salí de Cuba," made #3 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The Dece ...

" (Hardin) – 2:17 # "

" (

Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American ( Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these ...

) – 2:39 # "For Baby" ( John Denver) – 2:24 # "The Girl Who Stood Beside Me" (Jeffrey Stevens) – 2:26 # "Red Balloon" (Hardin) – 2:03 # "Amy" (

) – 2:21 # " Don't Make Promises" (Hardin) – 2:26 # "

Daydream Daydreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current, external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction. This phenomenon is common in people's daily life shown by a large-scale study in which partici ...

" (Sebastian) – 2:32

Personnel

*Bobby Darin – vocals *Don Peake – arranger, guitar *

Dennis Budimir Dennis Matthew Budimir (June 20, 1938 – January 2023) was an American jazz and rock guitarist. He was considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew. Biography Budimir learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played professio ...

, Al Casey, David Cohen,

Mike Deasy Michael William Deasy (born February 4, 1941) is an American rock and jazz guitarist. As a session musician, he played on numerous hit singles and albums recorded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He is sometimes credited as Mike De ...

– guitar * Jim Gordon,

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

– drums *

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon & ...

– keyboards *Leonard Malarsky, Sid Sharp – strings *Gary Coleman – percussion, vibraphone *Bob West – bass guitar *Harry Hymas – strings

References

{{Authority control 1966 albums Bobby Darin albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Charles Koppelman