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24 minutes ago, Wizard said:

stevie nicks

She just released a new song and has been on tour all year. :celestial4:

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Bobbie Gentry

 

She's one of the pioneers of Southern Gothic music style, was one of the first women to write and produce her own music and was marketed as a Country singer. She rose to fame in 1967 with the very iconic Ode to Billie Joe, a song about a boy who commited suicide and is talked in the point of view of his friend who retells how the community reacts and what they say in form of a dinner table conversation.

 

 

The song quickly reached #1 and was a huge seller, which was unexpected, because of it's very different, slower sound and being of 4:15 minutes length at a time when due to jukeboxes records were usually much shorter (streaming era teas). It received 3 out of 6 Grammys and was critically praised.
 

A big topic of discussion was what did Billie Joe McAllister throw from the Tallahatchie Bridge. A topic still being discussed by people who remember this classic. 

 

spacer.png

 

Her debut album was a big success, reaching #1 on the Billboard 200, being the only album to knock The Beatles' legendary Sgt. Pepper's album from the top. 

 

Capitol Records pre-ordered 500,000 copies of this album, an amount that never happened before.

 

Sadly, that amount of success was never repeated by her, with a shocking decline in commercial performance.

 

She released a total 7 albums between 1967 and 1971.

But her sophomore record bombed on the charts reaching only #132 (:rip:) but received critical praise and was just recently re-recorded as a tribute album by other artists, e.g. Norah Jones.

 

This album track is one of most popular songs nowadays for example:

 

 

 

Her only successful records afterwards were her collaborative album with the legendary country singer Glen Campbell (R.I.P. :heart2:) and the very iconic and extremely well-done Fancy, which peaked at #27 on the Hot 100, later famously covered by Reba McEntire

 

 

Why did she flop after her massively successful debut? She was non-commercial and doing her thing, but mostly, because she won the Grammy award for BEST NEW ARTIST.

 

She was a smart businesswoman though, she made lots of money from the movie Ode to Billy Joe, which was loosely based on the song's story, if I recall in the movie the boy killed himself, due to being gay. She made a great deal receiving a percentage of revenues, unlike Loretta Lynn for example, who only received like a rather low one time payment (compared to the success) for Coal Miner's Daughter.

 

After her contract was fulfilled in 1971 I assume, she's done several successful Las Vegas residencies throughout the 70s, again being one of the first women to be in control of the creative process.


In the late 70s she lost interest in that.

Her very last public appearance was at the ACM Awards in 1982.

She never gave interviews or anything, living in a gated community in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

We only have one picture of her ever since. This is from 2014, she is 80 years old now.

1*3cmjxVLKQtg_qp2uNRJb-g.jpeg

 

That's all for now, even though there's more to her story that can be read in multiple articles still being written about her. :heart: 

Edited by Breakdown
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  • 1 year later...
On 11/8/2022 at 5:22 PM, Breakdown said:

Bobbie Gentry

 

She's one of the pioneers of Southern Gothic music style, was one of the first women to write and produce her own music and was marketed as a Country singer. She rose to fame in 1967 with the very iconic Ode to Billie Joe, a song about a boy who commited suicide and is talked in the point of view of his friend who retells how the community reacts and what they say in form of a dinner table conversation.

 

 

The song quickly reached #1 and was a huge seller, which was unexpected, because of it's very different, slower sound and being of 4:15 minutes length at a time when due to jukeboxes records were usually much shorter (streaming era teas). It received 3 out of 6 Grammys and was critically praised.
 

A big topic of discussion was what did Billie Joe McAllister throw from the Tallahatchie Bridge. A topic still being discussed by people who remember this classic. 

 

spacer.png

 

Her debut album was a big success, reaching #1 on the Billboard 200, being the only album to knock The Beatles' legendary Sgt. Pepper's album from the top. 

 

Capitol Records pre-ordered 500,000 copies of this album, an amount that never happened before.

 

Sadly, that amount of success was never repeated by her, with a shocking decline in commercial performance.

 

She released a total 7 albums between 1967 and 1971.

But her sophomore record bombed on the charts reaching only #132 (:rip:) but received critical praise and was just recently re-recorded as a tribute album by other artists, e.g. Norah Jones.

 

This album track is one of most popular songs nowadays for example:

 

 

 

Her only successful records afterwards were her collaborative album with the legendary country singer Glen Campbell (R.I.P. :heart2:) and the very iconic and extremely well-done Fancy, which peaked at #27 on the Hot 100, later famously covered by Reba McEntire

 

 

Why did she flop after her massively successful debut? She was non-commercial and doing her thing, but mostly, because she won the Grammy award for BEST NEW ARTIST.

 

She was a smart businesswoman though, she made lots of money from the movie Ode to Billy Joe, which was loosely based on the song's story, if I recall in the movie the boy killed himself, due to being gay. She made a great deal receiving a percentage of revenues, unlike Loretta Lynn for example, who only received like a rather low one time payment (compared to the success) for Coal Miner's Daughter.

 

After her contract was fulfilled in 1971 I assume, she's done several successful Las Vegas residencies throughout the 70s, again being one of the first women to be in control of the creative process.


In the late 70s she lost interest in that.

Her very last public appearance was at the ACM Awards in 1982.

She never gave interviews or anything, living in a gated community in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

We only have one picture of her ever since. This is from 2014, she is 80 years old now.

1*3cmjxVLKQtg_qp2uNRJb-g.jpeg

 

That's all for now, even though there's more to her story that can be read in multiple articles still being written about her. :heart: 

I love her, wish she was celebrated more. Fancy is that song, born on the same day as me, July 27th.

 

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17 hours ago, BadHabits said:

I love her, wish she was celebrated more. Fancy is that song, born on the same day as me, July 27th.

 

After 2 years I didn't expect someone would finally recognize my essay I put the most effort in lol, thanks for that! :heart2: And yay, it makes me happy you like her, she is truly so underappreciated and in our gens not really known, a shame. She really has some great music. And I really respect her for just leaving the industry when she was done with it and not looking back. 

:hug:

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