Rod Stewart's version appeared as the first single from his 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story, with "Maggie May" as the B-side. "Reason to Believe" reached No. 62 on the Hot 100 on its own before the more popular B-side overtook it on its way to No. 1 on the chart. The Hot 100 listed "Reason To Believe" as the flip side for the remaining 16 weeks of that run. Stewart's double-sided hit, which topped the Hot 100 during all five chart weeks of October 1971, held The Carpenters' "Superstar" at No. 2 during the third and fourth of those weeks.
A live version was released in 1993 on the album Unplugged...and Seated. Released as the second single from the album, it reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart. The 1993 single includes a live version of "It's All Over Now", which was recorded during the MTV Unplugged performance but does not appear on the album.
Altogether, the two versions of "Reason to Believe" logged a total of 41 weeks on the Hot 100, more than any other Rod Stewart song.
