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Bobbie Gentry

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Bobbie Gentry

Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27 1944, Chickasaw County, Mississippi), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American singer-songwriter. Gentry was one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material.[1] She wrote much of her own material, drawing on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.

With her U.S. #1 album, Ode to Billie Joe, and the Southern Gothic narrative of the title track, she won the Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy awards in 1968. "Ode to Billie Joe" was the fourth most popular song in the United States in 1967.[2] Gentry charted nine singles in Billboard Hot 100 and four singles in the U.K. Top 40.[3] After her first albums, she turned towards the variety show genre. After losing her popularity in the 1970s, she quit performing and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.

Biography

Roberta Streeter is partially of Portuguese ancestry. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she was raised in poverty by her mother, on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. After her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended elementary school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play guitar, bass, and banjo and vibes, and sang at a local country club while she was in high school. At 13, she moved to Arcadia, California to live with her mother, Ruby Bullington Streeter. She had a half sister Rosemary in Vancouver,Canada. Her sister was much younger and grew up to be a teacher.

Roberta Streeter graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. She chose the stage name "Bobbie Gentry" from the 1952 film Ruby Gentry (starring Jennifer Jones as a heroine born into poverty but determined to make a success of her life) and began performing at local country clubs. Encouraged by Bob Hope, she performed in a revue of Les Folies Bergeres nightclub of Las Vegas. Gentry then moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA as a philosophy major, and supported herself by working in clerical jobs, occasionally performing at local nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to hone her composition and performing skills. In 1964, she made her recording debut, with a pair of duets – "Ode to Love" and "Stranger in the Mirror" with rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds.
Her career failed to take off, however, and she continued performing in nightclubs until Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon heard a demo she recorded in 1967.

Gentry married casino entrepreneur Bill Harrah in Reno, Nevada, but the marriage lasted only briefly. In 1979, Gentry married singer-songwriter Jim Stafford. Their marriage lasted 11 months. Gentry had one son with Stafford by the name of Tyler.

Cover of Bobbie Gentry's debut album (1967)

Musical career

In 1967, Gentry produced her first single, "Mississippi Delta"/"Ode to Billie Joe", detailing the suicide of Billie Joe McAllister, who flings himself off the Tallahatchie Bridge. The song used a traditional blues scale, lowered the 3rd and the 7th degree.[4] The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in August 1967 and placed #4 in the year-end chart.[2] The single hit #8 on Billboard Black Singles and #13 in the U.K. Top 40.[3] The single sold over three million copies.[1] The Rolling Stone listed it among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2001.

The LP replaced Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the top of U.S. charts. It also reached #5 of the Billboard Black Albums charts. Bobbie Gentry won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She was also named the Academy of Country Music's Best New Female Vocalist. In February, 1968 Bobbie Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo, as one of the two performers (alongside Al Bano) of the song "La siepe" by Vito Pallavicini and Massara. In a competition of 24 songs, the entry qualified to the final 14 and eventually placed ninth.[5]

Gentry's later albums did not match the success of her first. In 1968 she collaborated on the album Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, which achieved a gold record. In October 1969 Gentry's "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David reached number one on the UK singles chart for a single week. In January 1970, it became a number six hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for Dionne Warwick. Template:Sound sample box align left

"Ode to Billie Joe"
Sample from "Ode To Billie Joe".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Template:Sample box end In 1970 she received recognition for her composition, "Fancy," which rose to #26 on the U.S. Country charts and #31 on the pop charts.[1] Gentry's personal view on the song:[6]

"Fancy" is my strongest statement for women's lib, if you really listen to it. I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues that they stand for — equality, equal pay, day care centers, and abortion rights.

The album, as the rest of her post-"Ode to Billie Joe" records, had little commercial success. However, it brought Gentry an Academy of Country Music Award and a Grammy nomination, both in the category of Best Female Vocalist.[7]

Stage performances and TV work (1971-1978)

Due to Gentry's commercial failure, Capitol did not renew her contract. Gentry continued to write and perform, touring Europe, generating a significant fan base in the United Kingdom and headlining a Las Vegas review for which she produced, choreographed, wrote and arranged the music. In 1974, Bobbie Gentry hosted a short-lived summer replacement variety show, The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, on CBS. The show, which served as her own version of Campbell's hit series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, also on CBS, was not renewed for a full season. That same year, Bobbie Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. In 1976, Baer directed a feature film Ode to Billy Joe based on her hit song.[8], starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. In the movie, the mystery of the title character's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and his emerging homosexuality. Bobbie Gentry's re-recording of the song for the film hit the pop charts, as did Capitol's reissue of the original recording; both peaked outside the top fifty. Her behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interest. After a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records, "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right", failed to chart, Bobbie Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearance as a performer was on Christmas Night 1978 as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After that, she settled in Los Angeles and remained out of public life.[1]

Artistry

In the hectic atmosphere of 1967, Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" stood out with its simplicity and integrity.[9] Bobbie Gentry was one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material.[1] Typically her songs had autobiographic characteristics.[9]

Legacy

Bobbie Gentry charted 9 singles in Billboard Hot 100[1] and 4 singles in U.K. Top 40.[3]

Bob Dylan's 1967 "Clothesline Saga" mimics the conversational style of "Ode to Billie Joe", with lyrics concentrating on routine household chores containing a shocking event buried in the mundane details (the revelation that "The Vice-President's gone mad!"[10]) In 2004, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule began performing a song called "Where Is Bobbie Gentry?" about the mystique surrounding Gentry since her retirement from the public eye.[11] The song appears on Sobule's 2009 album California Years. Beth Orton wrote another song called "Bobbie Gentry" and released it on her 2003 album The Other Side of Daybreak. On their 1984 album, The Third Album, the Scottish band Orange Juice sing about "the lovely face of Bobbie Gentry" in "Out For The Count".

Discography

Singles

Year Single Chart Positions Album
US Country US Hot 100 US AC UK Top 40
1963 "Requiem For Love/Stranger In The Mirror"
  • Titan 1736
1967 "Ode to Billie Joe/Mississippi Delta"
  • Capitol 5950
 17 1 7 13 Ode to Billie Joe
"I Saw An Angel Die/Poppa, Won't 'Cha Let Me Go To Town With You"
  • Capitol 5992
"Okolona River Bottom Band/Penduli, Pendulum"
  • Capitol 2044
 54
1968 "Louisiana Man/Court Yard"
  • Capitol 2147
 72 100 The Delta Sweete
"Hushabye Mountain/Sweet Peony"
  • Capitol 2295
"Morning Glory/Less Of Me" (with Glen Campbell)
  • Capitol 2321
 74 Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
1969 "Let It Be Me/Little Green Apples" (with Glen Campbell)
  • Capitol 2387
 14 36 7
"I'll Never Fall in Love Again/Ace Insurance Man"
  • Capitol 15606
 1 Touch 'Em with Love
"Casket Vignette/Touch 'Em with Love"
  • Capitol 2387
1970 "All I Have to Do Is Dream/ Less Of Me" (with Glen Campbell)
  • Capitol 2745
 6 27 7 3 Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
"Fancy/Court Yard"
  • Capitol 2675
 26 31 Fancy
"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head/Seasons Come, Seasons Go"
  • Capitol 15626
 40
"He Made a Woman Out of Me/Billy The Kid"
  • Capitol 2788
 70
"Apartment 21/Seasons Come Seasons Go"
  • Capitol 2849
 81
1971 "But I Can't Get Back/Marigolds and Tangerines"
  • Capitol 3071
 Patchwork
1972 "Girl From Cincinnati/You And Me Together"
  • Capitol 3413
1976 "Another Time, Another Place/I Think I'll Cry Out Loud"
  • Brunswick 55517
"Ode to Billie Joe/There'll Be A Time" (re-recording)
  • Warner Bros 8210
 54 Greatest Hits
1978 "He Did Me Wrong But He Did It Right/Steal Away"
  • Warner Bros 8210

Albums

Data from Allmusic[1]

Year Album Chart Positions RIAA
US Country US 200 UK
1967 Ode to Billie Joe 1 1 Gold
1968 The Delta Sweete 132
Local Gentry
Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell 1 11 Gold
Way Down South
1969 Touch 'Em with Love 42 164 21
Greatest 180
1970 Fancy 34 96
I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Bobbie Gentry Portrait
1971 Patchwork
Sittin' Pretty
Tobacco Road
Your No 1 Fan
1983 Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell

All I have to do is Dream

1990 Bobbie Gentry's Greatest Hits
  • Curb
  • Catalogue Number D2-77387
1994 The Best of Bobbie Gentry
1995 Bobbie Gentry - The Hit Albums
  • DISKY
  • Catalogue Number HA-860502
1998 The Golden Classics of Bobbie Gentry
  • Collectibles
  • Catalogue Number CD 5862
2000 The Capitol Years: Ode to Bobbie Gentry
2002 An American Quilt 1967-1974
  • Raven
  • Catalogue Number 1302

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Bobbie Gentry".
  2. ^ a b "Chairborne Ranger Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Songs 1967". Chairborne Ranger.
  3. ^ a b c "UK Top 40 Hit Database". everyhit.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  4. ^ "Ode to Billie Joe". Allmusic.
  5. ^ "Sanremo 1968". HitParadeItalia.
  6. ^ Morag Veljkovic, "Ode to Bobbie Gentry," After Dark Magazine monthly, July 1974
  7. ^ 1971 Grammy Awards Metrolyrics.com
  8. ^ Ode to Billy Joe International Movie Database
  9. ^ a b Valter Ojakäär (1983). Popmuusikast (On Pop Music) (in Estonian). Eesti Raamat.
  10. ^ Dylan, Bob (1975). "Bob Dylan: "Clothesline"". The Basement Tapes. Retrieved 2007-12-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  11. ^ Lyrics of Jill Sobule's song "Bobbie Gentry" Songmeanings.net
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