Bobbie Gentry

Bobbie Gentry (* 27. July 1942 as Roberta Lee Streeter in Chickasaw County , Mississippi ) is an American country - singer , in 1967 by the hit Ode to Billie Joe was known.

Career

The Portuguese-born Roberta Streeter grew up in the southern state of Mississippi and moved at the age of thirteen to California. Here she attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and gained her first experience as a singer while performing in the local club scene. She joined various theater groups and worked as a dancer in Las Vegas for a while . It was during these years that she adopted the name Bobbie Gentry (based on the movie Ruby Gentry ).

In 1967 Gentry got a recording deal with Capitol Records . Her first single, the Ode to Billie Joe , performed almost in chant with sparse guitar accompaniment, which described the circumstances surrounding a suicide, became a hit. The song, which earned her three Grammys and numerous other awards, stayed at the top of the US charts for four weeks and placed high in the country charts. The "Southern Belle" with the hoarse blues voice had immediately made the commercial breakthrough.

However, Bobbie Gentry was unable to build on this initial success. Okolona River Bottom Band (1967), Louisiana Man (1968), Mornin 'Glory (1968) and Let It Be Me (1969) with Glen Campbell, and Fancy (1969) were minor hits in the United States. In 1969 I'll Never Fall in Love Again also made it to the top of the UK charts. Raindrops Keep Fallin 'on My Head , a cover version of the song by BJ Thomas , hit the UK charts in 1970. There were other small chart placements this year for the singles He Made a Woman Out of Me and Apartment 21 . In the early 1970s, Gentry briefly had his own television show. In 1976, Ode to Billie Joe hit the charts again as the theme music for the film of the same name. After appearing in Las Vegas in the 1970s, she retired completely from the music business in the early 1980s.

Gentry was married three times, with her last husband Jim Stafford (married from 1978 to 1979) she has a son. After the end of her career, Gentry turned to other business activities. She is said to have detested the music business and to this day refuses all requests for interviews. She lives in a gated community near Memphis, according to a 2016 Washington Post report .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1967	Ode to Billie Joe	-	-	-	-	US1 (30 weeks) US
1968	The Delta Sweete	-	-	-	-	US132 (12 weeks) US
	Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell	-	-	-	UK50 (1 week) UK	US11 (47 weeks) US	UK chart entry in February 1970 with Glen Campbell
1969	Touch 'Em with Love	-	-	-	UK21 (1 week) UK	US164 (4 weeks) US
1970	Fancy	-	-	-	-	US96 (17 weeks) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1968: Local Gentry
• 1971: patchwork
• 1971: Tobacco Road
• 1973: Ode to Billy Joe - Sound Track (with Michel Legrand )

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1970	Bobbie Gentry's Greatest!	-	-	-	-	US180 (2 weeks) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More compilations

• 1967: The Capitol Disc Jockey Album October 1967 (with Murry Wilson , Eddie Heywood , Ann Dee, Al Martino , Dave Cavanaugh)
• 1969: Bobbie Gentry's Greatest
• 1969: Round-Up (with Glen Campbell , Tennessee Ernie Ford , Al Martino, The Lettermen )
• 1970: portrait
• 1971: Your No.1 Fan
• 1972: The Very Best of Bobbie Gentry
• 1974: Bobbie Gentry's Greatest Hits
• 1983: All I Have to Do Is Dream (with Glen Campbell)
• 1989: Bobbie Gentry's Greatest
• 1990: Greatest Hits
• 1991: Country Classics
• 1993: The Best of Bobbie Gentry
• 1995: The Hit Albums
• 2000: Ode to Bobbie Gentry - The Capitol Years
• 2002: An American Quilt 1967-1974
• 2004: Chickasaw County Child: The Artistry Of
• 2005: The Very Best Of
• 2007: The Best of the Capitol Years (2 CDs)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1967	Ode to Billie Joe Ode to Billie Joe	DE23 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK13 (11 weeks) UK	US1 (20 weeks) US
	Okolona River Bottom Band The Delta Sweete	-	-	-	-	US54 (4 weeks) US
1968	Louisiana Man The Delta Sweete	-	-	-	-	US100 (1 week) US
	Mornin 'Glory Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell	-	-	-	-	US74 (6 weeks) US	with Glen Campbell
1969	Let It Be Me Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell	-	-	-	-	US36 (9 weeks) US	with Glen Campbell
	I'll Never Fall in Love Again Touch 'Em with Love	DE27 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 (19 weeks) UK	-
	Fancy Fancy	-	-	-	-	US31 (14 weeks) US
	All I Have to Do Is Dream Bobbie Gentry's Greatest Hits	-	-	-	UK3 (14 weeks) UK	US27 (10 weeks) US	with Glen Campbell, Author: Boudleaux Bryant Original: The Everly Brothers , 1958
1970	Raindrops Keep Fallin 'on My Head Fancy	-	-	-	UK40 (4 weeks) UK	-	Authors: Hal David , Burt Bacharach Original: BJ Thomas , 1969
	He Made a Woman Out of Me Fancy	-	-	-	-	US71 (5 weeks) US
	Apartment 21 Apartment 21	-	-	-	-	US81 (6 weeks) US
1976	Ode to Billy Joe - Main Title Ode to Billy Joe - Sound Track	-	-	-	-	US65 (4 weeks) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

• 1967: I Saw an Angel Die
• 1968: Sweet Peony
• 1968: The Fool on the Hill
• 1968: Less of Me (with Glen Campbell)
• 1969: Touch 'Em with Love
• 1970: If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody
• 1971: But I Can't Get Back
• 1971: Somebody Like Me
• 1972: The Girl from Cincinnati
• 1975: Another Place - Another Time
• 1976: There'll Be Time (Love Theme)
• 1978: Steal Away

Awards

year	Org.	Award	title
1967	ACM	Top New Female Vocalist
1968	grammy	Best Vocal Performance, Female	Ode to Billie Joe
1968	grammy	Best New Artist
1968	grammy	Best Contemporary Female Solo Performance	Ode to Billie Joe
1968	ACM	Album of the Year	Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry

literature

• Irwin Stambler, Grelun Landon: Encyclopedia Of Folk, Country And Western Music . St. Martin's Press, New York / London 1969, p. 104.

Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits . 3rd revised and expanded edition. New York City, New York: Billboard Publications, 1992, p. 229.

swell

1. ↑ http://bobbiegentry.org.uk/biography/
2. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/all-southerners-come-home--as-has-long-disappeared-music-legend-bobbie-gentry/2016/06/02/3988aba2-28df- 11e6-a3c4-0724e8e24f3f_story.html? Noredirect = on
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles UK US
4. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .

Web links

• Bobbie Gentry at Allmusic (English)
• Bobbie Gentry at Discogs (English)