Bobbie Gentry

Roberta Lee Streeter (July 27, 1942), aka Bobbie Gentry, is an American singer-songwriter and country performer, mostly known for her 1967 hit, “Ode to Billie Joe.” Born into a poor family in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, she wrote her first song at the age of 7 after her grandmother traded one of the family’s milk cows for a piano. She also learnt how to play the piano and the banjo while living with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi. At the age of 13, she moved to Palm Springs with her mother, only to relocate to Los Angeles a few years later. There, she studied philosophy at UCLA and performed occasionally at nightclubs and country clubs. In 1966, she made her recording debut with singer Jody Reynolds on the single “Stranger in the Mirror” while studying at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Eventually, she cut out a demo that caught the attention of Capitol Records. Ode to Billie Joe, her major label debut, arrived in 1967 and climbed to the top of the charts propelled by its title track, a lushly orchestrated country song that spent four consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also earned Bobbie Gentry two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In the following years, Bobbie Gentry delivered six more LPs for Capitol—The Delta Sweete (1968), Local Gentry (1968), Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell (1968), Touch 'Em with Love (1969), Fancy (1970), and Patchwork (1971)—before a legal dispute with the label prevented her from releasing any new original material. She mainly remained active through her own variety TV show The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, which aired in 1974, and as a co-writer for the 1976 film adaptation of her single “Ode to Billie Joe.” Her last public appearance dates back to 1982 when she attended the Academy of Country Music Awards.