Tea for the Tillerman

Released by Island in the UK and A&M in North America and produced by Paul Samwell-Smith, it was recorded across three London studios. Stevens painted the cover himself. Alun Davies played guitar on ten of the eleven tracks and sang backing vocals on several, with Harvey Burns on drums and John Ryan on double bass. Del Newman arranged the strings, and Jack Rothstein played the violin solo on Sad Lisa. Father and Son began in a proposed musical about the Russian Revolution called Revolussia, and But I Might Die Tonight was recorded in July 1970 for the film Deep End. Four songs, Tea for the Tillerman, Where Do the Children Play, Miles from Nowhere and On the Road to Find Out, were used in Harold and Maude in 1971.

It reached number 8 on the Billboard 200 and number 20 in the UK, and was number 2 in Australia. Over its first six months it sold more than 500,000 copies. Ben Gerson reviewed it for Rolling Stone in February 1971 and called it an album affirming the simple life and the individual's search for values. He praised the furry voice on Longer Boats and thought Stevens leaned on dynamics for dramatic effect, while finding his keyboard and guitar playing a bit amateurish and charming for it. Robert Christgau of the Village Voice found the music monotonous. Rolling Stone ranked it at 205 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums.

A deluxe edition in November 2008 added a disc of demos and live recordings. A five-disc 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition came out in December 2020, with 21 unreleased recordings, new remasters made at Abbey Road Studios and a record of Stevens live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970. It included his re-recording, Tea for the Tillerman 2.