Who sang the song about jumping off the Tallahassee bridge?
Bobbie Gentry
“Ode to Billie Joe” is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title-track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped Billboard’s Pop singles chart.
Why did Billie Joe jump off the bridge?
“This boy’s death did not get his neighbors involved,” she explained at the time. She explained that the object thrown off the bridge was just a way to establish motivation for Billie Joe’s suicide. “I left it open so the listener could draw his own conclusion.”
Is Ode to Billie Joe a true story?
No. While Bobbie Gentry admits the story is fictionalized, she did explain that it was inspired by the 1954 murder of Emmett Till. Till was only 14 years old when he was shot and thrown over the Black Bayou Bridge in Mississippi for offending a woman in a grocery store.
Was Billie Joe McAllister a real person?
GREENWOOD, Miss. — A group of Mississippi residents gathered on a sleepy, dusty Delta day to remember the fictional Billy Joe McAllister where — as the 1967 hit song had it — he ended his life when he jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge.
Where is Bobbie Gentry today?
Today, the word is Gentry lives in a gated community near Memphis which is about two hours from the Tallahatchie Bridge; memorialized in her monster hit. There is no word if she spends her time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge then dropping them into the muddy waters off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Was Billy Joe McAllister a real person?
Who wrote Son of a Preacher Man?
John Hurley
John WilkinRonnie Wilkins
Son Of A Preacher Man/Composers
“Son of a Preacher Man” is a song written and composed by American songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins and recorded by British singer Dusty Springfield in September 1968 for the album Dusty in Memphis.
Was Bobbie Gentry married to Stafford?
She married Thomas R. Toutant on August 17, 1976, whom she divorced on August 1, 1978. On October 15, 1978, Gentry married singer and comedian Jim Stafford with whom she had a son, Tyler Gentry Stafford. Gentry and Stafford divorced in September 1980.