If I Were a Carpenter

If I Were a Carpenter "is a song written by the American composer Tim Hardin. The song was recorded by many different artists, including the original hit versions by himself, by Bobby Darin and the Four Tops and other successful artists such as the Small Faces, Joan Baez and Dolly Parton. The version of Bobby Darin in 1966 reached the # 8 position in the United States and the # 9-position in the United Kingdom.

In addition to the successful version of Bobby Darin, the Four Tops, also had an American group which were under contract with the record company Motown, there was a big hit with it. They brought out as a successor of the song "Walk Away Renée", a hit for the Group at the beginning of the year. Just like its predecessor is "If I Were a carpenter" a cover. Brought these two numbers from the Four Tops, because their fixed writing team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown had left and the Group had no own new singles to bring out. Like "Walk Away Renée" is "If I Were a Carpenter from the album"Reach Out". Also the b-side of the single, "Wonderful Baby", comes from this album. This song was written by Smokey Robinson, a singer who also was part of another group that for Motown, The Miracles. "If I Were a carpenter" was the most successful in Netherlands for the Four Tops. There it reached number the # 4 position in the Dutch top 40. In the home country of the group, the United States, the song reached the # 17 position on the R & B list and the # 20 position on the poplist.

The Swedish-Dutch singer Cornelis Vreeswijk made a Swedish version: To jag vore arbetslös (' if I was unemployed '). ==Occupation Four Tops[ Edit] == ==Radio 2 Top 2000[ Edit] ==
 * Lead: Levi Stubbs
 * Background vocals by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Abdul "Duke" Fakir and Lawrence Payton
 * Instrumentation: The Funk Brothers
 * Writer: Tim Hardin
 * Producers: Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier