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Bobbie Gentry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bobbie Gentry | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Roberta Lee Streeter |
| Also known as | Bobbie Gentry |
| Born | July 27, 1944 |
| Origin | Chickasaw County, Mississippi |
| Genre(s) | Country, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1967–1978 |
| Label(s) | Capitol |
| Associated acts |
Glen Campbell |
Bobbie Gentry (b. Roberta Lee Streeter, July 27, 1944, Chickasaw County, Mississippi) is an American singer-songwriter.
She shot to international fame in the summer of 1967 with "Ode to Billie Joe". The song was listed as the most popular single of the year in many U.S. record surveys[citation needed].
Contents |
Gentry spent her childhood living with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi, where she attended elementary school and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, and the banjo. In her early teens, she moved to Palm Springs, California, to live with her mother, Ruby Bullington Streeter, graduating from Palm Valley School in 1960. Gentry was of partial Portuguese ancestry.[1] At about this time, she chose the stage name "Bobbie Gentry" and began performing at local country clubs, encouraged by no less a Palm Springs celebrity than Bob Hope.
After a short career as a Las Vegas showgirl, Gentry moved to Los Angeles, attended UCLA (where she was a philosophy major) and worked clerical jobs while occasionally performing in local nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to hone her composition and performing skills.
In 1967, Gentry recorded a demo and submitted it to Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon, who quickly signed her to a recording contract and produced her first album. A 45 rpm single of two of her songs — "Mississippi Delta" and "Ode to Billie Joe" — was the first issue from this first effort, and even though "Mississippi Delta" was chosen for the "A" side, radio stations were quickly enamored with the quirky tale of Billie Joe McAllister and the mystery of his fate, as performed and recorded on the "B" side. Gentry had a monster hit on her hands, and Capitol Records had its newest superstar. Gentry went on to win three Grammy Awards that year, including "Best Vocal Performance by a Female", and "Best New Artist."
Gentry's follow-up albums, The Delta Sweete and Local Gentry, both produced by Gordon, were issued in 1968. Though critically acclaimed, neither album garnered the kinds of sales figures that were realized with Gentry's debut effort. In 1968, she released an album of duets that paired her with fellow Capitol alumnus Glen Campbell. Gentry and Campbell's harmonies resulted in a gold record and three hit singles, including a cover of the Everly Brothers' hit "All I Have to Do Is Dream", which rose to No. 6 on the country charts in the winter of 1969.
On December 18, 1969, she married casino entrepreneur Bill Harrah in Reno, Nevada, but the marriage only lasted a brief period.
Gentry toured briefly with Campbell and performed on a number of U.S. and British television programs and specials in the late 1960s. Her other notable singles include Doug Kershaw's composition "Louisiana Man" as well as a version of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". The latter went to No. 1 in Great Britain in 1970, a year after Dionne Warwick had a hit with it in the United States. That year also saw the release of another U.S. hit with the self-penned "Fancy," which rose to No. 26 on the Country chart and 31 on the pop chart. (This song would later be covered with major success by Reba McEntire in 1990.)
Gentry would go on to record three more albums, while having earlier albums reissued under different titles. These last three albums, Touch 'Em with Love, Fancy, and the ambitious and highly regarded Patchwork, which consisted of all original material, were greeted enthusiastically by critics. However, with the exception of the aforementioned title track to Fancy, they saw little commercial success (though Gentry did generate a significant fan base in the United Kingdom), and Capitol did not renew her contract.
Gentry continued to write and perform, touring Europe and headlining a Las Vegas review in which she produced, choreographed, wrote and arranged the music.
In 1974, 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 picked up for a full season. That same year, Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director (and Beverly Hillbillies actor) Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. Baer would go on to direct a feature film take on ("Ode to Billy Joe"), starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor, in which 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. Gentry re-recorded the song for the movie; in 1976 the new version hit the pop charts, as did Capitol's reissue of the original recording, although both peaked outside the top fifty.
After some behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interest and a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records ("He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right") failed to chart, 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. She has chosen to remain out of the limelight ever since.
In 2004, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule began performing a song called "Bobbie Gentry" about the mystique surrounding Gentry since her retirement from the public eye.[2]
Beth Orton wrote another song called "Bobbie Gentry" and released it on her 2003 album The Other Side of Daybreak.
| Year | Single | U.S. Country | U.S. Pop | U.S. A.C. | U.K. Top 40 | Album |
| 1967 | "Ode to Billie Joe" | 17 | 1 | 7 | 13 | Ode to Billie Joe |
| 1967 | "Okolona River Bottom Band" | - | 54 | - | - | The Delta Sweete |
| 1968 | "Louisiana Man" | 72 | 100 | - | - | The Delta Sweete |
| 1968 | "Mornin' Glory" (with Glen Campbell) | - | 74 | - | - | Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell |
| 1969 | "Let It Be Me" (with Glen Campbell) | 14 | 36 | 7 | - | Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell |
| 1969 | "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" | - | - | - | 1 | Touch 'Em With Love |
| 1970 | "All I Have to Do Is Dream" (with Glen Campbell) | 6 | 27 | 4 | - | Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell |
| 1970 | "Fancy" | 26 | 31 | - | - | Fancy |
| 1970 | "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" | - | - | - | 40 | Fancy |
| 1970 | "Apartment 21" | - | 81 | - | - | Fancy |
| 1970 | "He Made a Woman Out of Me" | - | 71 | - | - | Fancy |
| 1976 | "Ode to Billie Joe" | - | 54 | - | - | Bobbie Gentry's Greatest |
- Ode to Billie Joe, 1967
- The Delta Sweete, 1968
- Local Gentry, 1968, aka Sittin' Pretty
- Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, 1968
- Touch 'Em with Love, 1969
- Bobbie Gentry's Greatest, 1969
- Fancy, 1970
- Patchwork, 1971
- Bufwack, Mary A. (1998). "Bobbie Gentry". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 198.
- Bobbie Gentry discography, lyrics, biography, photo gallery, links, message board, etc.
- Bobbie Gentry discography and lyrics
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007 | 1944 births | Living people | American country singers | American female singers | Grammy Award winners | People from Greenwood, Mississippi | People from Los Angeles County | People from Palm Springs, California | Portuguese-Americans