Best-known for her crossover smash "
Ode to Billie Joe," she was one of the first female country artists to write and produce much of her own material, forging an idiosyncratic, pop-inspired sound that, in tandem with her glamorous, bombshell image, anticipated the rise of latter-day superstars like
Shania Twain and
Faith Hill. Of
Portuguese descent,
Gentry was born
Roberta Streeter in
Chickasaw County, MS, on July 27,
1944; her parents divorced shortly after her birth and she was raised in poverty on her grandparents' farm. 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," years later self-deprecatingly reprised in her nightclub act; at 13, she moved to
Arcadia, CA, to live with her mother, soon beginning her performing career in local country clubs. The
1952 film Ruby Gentry lent the singer her stage surname.
After graduating high school, Gentry settled in
Las Vegas, where she appeared in the Les
Folies Bergère nightclub revue; she soon returned to
California, studying philosophy at
U.C.L.A. before transferring to the
Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. In 1964, she made her recorded debut, cutting a pair of duets -- "Ode to
Love" and "
Stranger in the Mirror" -- with rockabilly singer
Jody Reynolds. Gentry continued performing in clubs in the years to follow before an early 1967 recording a demo found its way to
Capitol Records producer
Kelly Gordon; upon signing to the label, she issued her debut single, "
Mississippi Delta." However, disc jockeys began spinning the
B-side, the self-penned "Ode to Billie Joe" -- with its eerily spare production and enigmatic narrative detailing the suicide of
Billie Joe McAllister, who flings himself off the Tallahatchie
Bridge, the single struck a chord on country and pop radio alike, topping the pop charts for four weeks in
August 1967 and selling three million copies. Although the follow-up, "I Saw an
Angel Die," failed to chart, Gentry nevertheless won three
Grammy awards, including
Best New Artist and
Best Female Vocal. She was also named the
Academy of Country Music's Best New Female Vocalist.
With her second
album,
1968's
The Delta Sweete, Gentry returned to the country charts with the minor hit "Okolona
River Bottom Band." Although her recordings were typically credited to
Capitol staff producers, she later maintained she helmed the sessions herself and also wrote much of her own material, drawing on her
Mississippi roots to compose revealing vignettes that typically explored the lifestyles, values, and even hypocrisies of the southern culture. Favoring more soulful and rootsy arrangements over the lavish countrypolitan style in vogue in
Nashville at the time, Gentry's records sound quite unlike anything on either the country or pop charts at the time and her smoky, sensuous voice adapted easily to a variety of musical contexts. But to many listeners, she remained a one-hit wonder and her excellent third album, 1968's
Local Gentry, received little notice. That same year, Gentry issued a duet album with
Glen Campbell, returning to the country
Top 20 with "
Let It Be Me"; the duo regularly collaborated throughout the
1970s, scoring their biggest hit with a reading of "
All I Really Want to Do."
In
1969, Gentry reached her creative zenith with
Touch 'Em
With Love -- though cut in Nashville, the record owed far more to the gritty
R&B; sounds emanating across the state in
Memphis and generated her first
U.K. number one, a smoldering rendition of the
Burt Bacharach/
Hal David perennial ." The single's success also earned Gentry her own short-lived
BBC television variety series. However, as her star diminished stateside, she became a fixture of the Las Vegas circuit, mounting an elaborate nightclub revue that she not only headlined but also wrote and produced, even overseeing the choreography and costuming. Gentry's 1969 marriage to
Desert Inn Hotel manager Bill Harrah ended after only three months, but the following year she returned to the county and pop
Top 40 with the title cut from her fifth album
Fancy. In
1971, she issued her final Capitol effort,
Patchwork, primarily confining her performing to her nightclub act for the next several years. A
CBS summer replacement series, The
Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, aired for four episodes in
1974; Gentry next surfaced on the big screen, credited as co-writer for a
1976 film adaptation of Ode to Billie Joe. After a second marriage, to fellow singer/songwriter
Jim Stafford, ended in
1979 after only 11 months, Gentry gradually receded from public view, retiring from performing and eventually settling in
Los Angeles. ~
Jason Ankeny,
All Music Guide
PLEASE
NOTE: I divided my uploads among multiple channels, Bookmark this link in your browser for instant access to an index with links to all of John1948's oldies classics.
LINK:
http://john1948.wikifoundry.com/page/John1948%27s+Youtube+
Index
- published: 06 Jan 2012
- views: 58959