Video: 'The Music Warehouse - Tim Hardin at Woodstock' (7 videos)

(Monday, December 29, 1980, body was found at about 6:30 p.m. PST) — The body of 39-year-old Tim Hardin, an American folk musician and composer who wrote the Top 40 hit “If I Were a Carpenter,” was found tonight on the floor of his Hollywood apartment, having died of an accidental heroin overdose.

Hardin reportedly suffered from a drug and alcohol habit for more than a decade.

Hardin released a total of 11 albums, but he remained largely unknown while his songs were recorded by stars and became familiar to millions.

His most successful song, “If I Were a Carpenter,” became an international hit for Bobby Darin in 1966 and for the Four Tops in 1968. The song later provided a gold-record single in the late 1960s for Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter.

Other widely recorded songs were ‘The Lady Came from Baltimore,’ ‘Black Sheep Boy’ and ‘Reason to Believe,’ which was included on albums by folksingers Peter, Paul and Mary and rock star Rod Stewart.

Hardin performed regularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s for college audiences and the Bitter End in New York and the Ash Grove in Los Angeles.

Hardin, who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, was buried in a secluded cemetery in Turner, a tiny western Oregon town.