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Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe

Series: 33 1/3
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( 198 ratings, 41 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Set in July 1967, this book explores the story behind Bobbie Gentry's haunting hit “Ode to Billie Joe,” which captivated a nation with its tale of a young man's mysterious suicide. The narrative delves into Gentry's rise to international fame as her song topped the charts, displacing even the Beatles. Drawing on exclusive interviews and rare career memorabilia, Tara Murtha investigates the origins of the song and offers insights into Gentry’s groundbreaking career and her sudden withdrawal from public life since the early 1980s.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2199
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in music history, Southern culture, and investigative pop biographies. Fans of Bobbie Gentry and those curious about iconic songs and their creators will find this book particularly engaging.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide. So much for the Summer of Love. Ode to Billie Joe knocked the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” off the top of the charts, and Bobbie Gentry became an international star. Almost 50 years later, Gentry is as enigmatic and captivating as her signature song.

Of course, fans still want to know why Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. They also wonder: Why did Bobbie Gentry, who has not performed or made a public appearance since the early 1980s, leave it all behind?

Through extensive interviews and unprecedented access to career memorabilia, Tara Murtha explores the real-life mysteries ensnarled within the much-disputed origin of Ode to Billie Joe. The result is an investigative pop history that reveals, for the first time, the full breadth of Bobbie Gentry’s groundbreaking career—and just may help explain her long silence.

Foreword by musician Jill Sobule.

Series: 33 1/3

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Steve J from AllMusicBooks praises the book as a compelling and accessible study of Bobbie Gentry’s debut and career, avoiding pedantic detail while offering a fascinating read. Katie Haegele of Utne Reader highlights Murtha’s skill at untangling myth from reality, making the book appealing to both casual listeners and pop-culture enthusiasts. Reviewers appreciate the author's journalistic approach and the fresh perspective on Gentry’s artistic challenges and achievements.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781623569648

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 February 2015

Country: United States

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 120.0mm

Height: 164.0mm

Weight: 145g

Pages: 160

About the Author

Tara Murtha is a journalist based in Philadelphia, USA.

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