Bobbie Gentry
b. Roberta Lee Streeter, 27 July 1944, Chicasaw County, Mississippi, USA. Gentry, of Portuguese descent, was raised on a poverty-stricken farm in Greenwood, Mississippi and was interested in music from an early age. She wrote her first song at the age of seven (My Dog Sergeant Is A Good Dog) and learnt piano—black keys only!—guitar, banjo and vibes. By her teens, she was regularly performing and she took her stage name from the film, Ruby Gentry. After studying both philosophy and music, she was signed to Capitol Records and recorded Mississippi Delta for an a-side. To her own guitar accompaniment, Gentry recorded the b-side, Ode To Billie Joe, in 30 minutes. Violins and cellos were added, the song was reduced from its original seven minutes, and, because of disk jockey's reactions, it became the a-side. Despite competition from Lee Hazlewood, Gentry's version topped the US charts for four weeks and reached number 13 in the UK. Capitol's truncated version added to the song's mystery: what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge and why did Billie Joe commit suicide? The song's main thrust, however, was the callousness of the girl's family to the event, and it can be twinned with Jeannie C. Riley's subsequent story of Harper Valley PTA. Gentry became a regular headliner in Las Vegas and she married Bill Harrah, the manager of the Desert Inn Hotel. (Gentry's second marriage, in 1978, was to singer-songwriter Jim Stafford.) Gentry made an easy listening album with Glen Campbell, which included successful revivals of the Everly Brothers hits, Let It Be Me (US Top 40) and All I Have To Do Is Dream (US Top 30/UK number 3). Gentry, with good looks similar to Priscilla Presley, was given her own UK television series, The Bobbie Gentry Show, which helped her to top the charts in 1969 with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song from PROMISES, PROMISES, I'll Never Fall In Love Again. The 1976 film, Ode To Billy Joe (sic), starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor, and had Billy Joe throw his girlfriend's ragdoll over the bridge and commit suicide because of a homosexual affair. Gentry herself retired from performing to look after her business interests.