Ode to Billie Joe - wikipedia Ode to Billie Joe For the 1976 film based on the song, see Ode to Billy Joe ( film ). `` Ode to Billie Joe '' Single by Bobbie Gentry from the album Ode to Billie Joe B - side `` Mississippi Delta '' Released July 1967 Format 7 - inch 45 rpm record Recorded July 10, 1967 Studio Capitol Studio C, Hollywood, California Genre Blues Length 4 : 15 Label Capitol Songwriter ( s ) Bobbie Gentry Producer ( s ) Kelly Gordon Bobbie Gentry singles chronology `` Requiem for Love '' ( 1963 ) `` Ode to Billie Joe '' ( 1967 ) `` I Saw an Angel Die '' ( 1967 ) `` Requiem for Love '' ( 1963 ) `` Ode to Billie Joe '' ( 1967 ) `` I Saw an Angel Die '' ( 1967 ) Audio sample file help `` Ode to Billie Joe '' is a 1967 song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a singer - songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released in late July, was a number - one hit in the United States, and became a big international seller. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song for 1967 ( the other two were # 2 `` The Letter '' by the Box Tops and # 1 `` To Sir With Love '' by Lulu ). The song is ranked # 412 on Rolling Stone 's list of `` the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time '' and at # 144 in Pitchfork 's 200 Best Songs of the 1960s. The recording of `` Ode to Billie Joe '' generated eight Grammy nominations, resulting in three wins for Gentry and one win for arranger Jimmie Haskell. Rolling Stone also ranked the song # 47 on its list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time in June 2014. The song takes the form of a first - person narrative with `` sparse '' musical accompaniment, that reveals a tale about a family 's dysfunctional, and overtly indifferent, reactions to the shocking news of a local boy 's suicide. He is suggested as connected in some way to the young female narrator. The song concludes by expressing the malaise, death of her father, and depression affecting the narrator and her own family over the following year. According to Gentry its theme is indifference and the emotional gaps between people. Contents 1 Story 1.1 Listener and author views on the story told in the song 2 Recording 3 Adaptations 4 Cultural impact 5 Translations 6 Chart performance 6.1 Weekly charts 6.1. 1 Bobbie Gentry 6.1. 2 Margie Singleton 6.2 Year - end charts 7 Other versions 8 Parodies and adaptations 9 Bibliography 10 References 11 External links Story The song is a first - person narrative to `` sparse '' musical accompaniment. It reveals a tale, mostly in the form of brief dialog extracts by the narrator 's family at dinnertime, on the day that a local boy, and apparently friend of the narrator, jumped to his death from a nearby bridge. Throughout the song, the suicide and other tragedies are contrasted against the banality of everyday routine and polite conversation. The final verse conveys the quick passage of events and other deaths in a year 's time. The song begins with the narrator, her brother and her father returning, after agricultural morning chores, to the family house for dinner ( on June 3 ). After cautioning them about tracking in dirt, `` Mama '' says that she `` got some news this mornin ' from Choctaw Ridge '' that `` Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge ''. At the dinner table, the narrator 's father appears unmoved and almost dismissive ; he comments that `` Billie Joe never had a lick o ' ( meaning, any ) sense '', and asks for the biscuits to be passed to him, and comments that he has `` five more acres in the lower forty '' to plow. Her brother seems somewhat taken aback ( `` I saw him at the sawmill yesterday... And now you tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge '' ), but follows the comment by asking for a second slice of pie. He recalls a prank that he and his friends played on the narrator, and that he saw her and Billie Joe talking after church a few days previously. The only person who seems genuinely upset is the narrator. Her mother - who eventually notices the narrator 's abrupt and complete change of mood at the news - seems unable to realize she is affected by the news ( `` Child, what 's happened to your appetite ? I been cookin ' all mornin ' and you have n't touched a single bite '' ). She shares other news instead, that a local preacher visited earlier in the day, and almost as an aside, that the preacher had mentioned seeing Billie Joe and a girl who looked very much like the narrator herself `` throwin ' somethin ' off the Tallahatchie Bridge '' - the object they were throwing is not identified. But again, the narrator 's mother fails to connect this in any way to her daughter 's emotional distress. In the song 's final verse, a year has passed, and brought more harm and pain. The narrator 's brother has married Becky Thompson, but they have moved away to another town ( `` bought a store in Tupelo '' ). Their father died from an unspecified viral infection, and their mother has been depressed and despondent, and `` does n't seem to wan na do much of anything ''. The narrator is also affected by the malaise ; the main change she describes in her own life, is that she often visits Choctaw Ridge and picks flowers there to drop from the Tallahatchie Bridge into the murky waters of the river where Billy Joe jumped to his death. Listener and author views on the story told in the song Questions arose among listeners : what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and why did Billie Joe commit suicide ? Speculation ran rampant after the song hit the airwaves. Gentry said in a November 1967 interview that it was the question most asked of her by everyone she met. She named flowers, an engagement ring, a draft card, a bottle of LSD pills, and an aborted baby as the most often guessed items. Although she knew definitely what the item was, she would not reveal it, saying only `` Suppose it was a wedding ring. '' `` It 's in there for two reasons, '' she said. `` First, it locks up a definite relationship between Billie Joe and the girl telling the story, the girl at the table. Second, the fact that Billie Joe was seen throwing something off the bridge -- no matter what it was -- provides a possible motivation as to why he jumped off the bridge the next day. '' When Herman Raucher met Gentry in preparation for writing a novel and screenplay based on the song, she said that she had no idea why Billie Joe killed himself. Gentry has, however, commented elsewhere on the song, saying that its real theme was indifference : Those questions are of secondary importance in my mind. The story of Billie Joe has two more interesting underlying themes. First, the illustration of a group of people 's reactions to the life and death of Billie Joe, and its subsequent effect on their lives, is made. Second, the obvious gap between the girl and her mother is shown when both women experience a common loss ( first Billie Joe, and later, Papa ), and yet Mama and the girl are unable to recognize their mutual loss or share their grief. The bridge mentioned in this song collapsed in June 1972. It crossed the Tallahatchie River at Money, about ten miles ( 16 km ) north of Greenwood, Mississippi, and has since been replaced. The November 10, 1967, issue of Life Magazine contained a photo of Gentry crossing the original bridge. In this photograph from the November 10, 1967 issue of Life magazine, Bobbie Gentry crosses the Tallahatchie Bridge in Money, Mississippi. The bridge collapsed in June 1972. Recording `` Ode to Billie Joe '' was originally intended as the B - side of Gentry 's first single recording, a blues number called `` Mississippi Delta '', on Capitol Records. The original recording, with no other musicians backing Gentry 's guitar, had eleven verses lasting seven minutes, telling more of Billie Joe 's story. The executives realized that this song was a better option for a single, so they cut the length by almost half and re-recorded it with a string orchestra. The shorter version left more of the story to the listener 's imagination, and made the single more suitable for radio airplay. The song is noted for its long descending scale by the strings at the conclusion, suggesting the flowers falling after being dropped off the Tallahatchie Bridge and ending up in the river water below. Adaptations The song 's popularity proved so enduring that in 1976, nine years after its release, Warner Bros. commissioned author Herman Raucher to expand and adapt the story as a novel and screenplay, Ode to Billy Joe. The poster 's tagline, which treats the film as being based on a true story and gives a date of death for Billy ( June 3, 1953 ), led many to believe that the song was based on actual events. In Raucher 's novel and screenplay, Billy Joe kills himself after a drunken homosexual experience, and the object thrown from the bridge is the narrator 's ragdoll. The film was released in 1976, directed and produced by Max Baer, Jr, and starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. Only the first, second, and fifth verses were sung by Bobbie Gentry in the film, omitting the third and fourth verses. In the novel, the ragdoll is the central character 's confidant and advisor. Tossing it off the bridge symbolizes throwing away her childhood, becoming a self - contained adult. Billy Joe 's story is analyzed in Professor John Howard 's history of gay Mississippi entitled Men Like That : A Queer Southern History as an archetype of what Howard calls the `` gay suicide myth ''. Cultural impact Soon after the song 's chart success, the Tallahatchie Bridge was visited by more individuals who wanted to jump off it. Since the bridge height was only 20 feet ( 6 m ), death or injury was unlikely. To curb the trend, the Leflore County Board enacted a law fining jumpers $100. Translations In 1967 American / French singer - songwriter Joe Dassin had much success with a French translation of the song titled `` Marie - Jeanne ''. It tells exactly the same story nearly word for word, but the lead characters are reversed. The narrator is one of the sons of the household, and the character who committed suicide is a girl named Marie - Jeanne Guillaume. A quick overview of the translated names and places : Bobbie Gentry Joe Dassin June 3 June 4 Billie Joe McAllister Marie - Jeanne Guillaume Tallahatchie Bridge Pont de la Garonne Choctaw Ridge Bourg - les - Essonnes Brother Taylor unnamed : just `` the sister of that young priest '' Tom Le Grand Nicolas Becky Thompson unnamed Tupelo unnamed Besides the change in character names and locations, the translator adapted mentions of food and crops to be associated with rural France. For instance, the narrator worked in a vineyard. The setting is a fictitious small town in southwest France. The River Garonne is real. In 1967, a Swedish translation by Olle Adolphson titled `` Jon Andreas visa '' was recorded by Siw Malmkvist. It is faithful to the story in `` Ode to Billie Joe '', but has changed the setting to rural Sweden. The name of Billie Joe was changed to the Swedish name Jon Andreas. A German translation titled `` Billy Joe McAllister '' was released in 1978 by Wencke Myhre. Chart performance Weekly charts Bobbie Gentry Chart ( 1967 ) Peak position Canada RPM Top Singles New Zealand ( Listener ) UK Singles Chart 13 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 7 U.S. Billboard R&B Singles 8 U.S. Billboard Country Singles 17 Margie Singleton Chart ( 1967 ) Peak position U.S. Billboard Country Singles 39 Year - end charts Chart ( 1967 ) Rank Canada 16 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Other versions A number of jazz versions have been recorded, including Willis Jackson, Howard Roberts, Cal Tjader, Mel Brown, Jimmy Smith, Buddy Rich, King Curtis, Jaco Pastorius, Dave Bartholomew, Patricia Barber and Jaki Byard.. In a 1967 appearance on Frank Sinatra : A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, Ella Fitzgerald sang one full verse of the song. Nancy Wilson covered the song on her 1967 album Welcome to my Love. Lou Donaldson released a version of the song on his 1967 album Mr. Shing - A-Ling on Blue Note Records. The Detroit Emeralds released a version of the song as the B - side to their 1968 single, `` Shades Down ''. A version of the song appears on Tammy Wynette 's 1968 album Take Me to Your World / I Do n't Wanna Play House, and later on her 1970 Greatest Hits album. The song was covered by Margret Roadknight, on her 1980 album Out of Fashion... Not out of Style. In 1985, the new wave band Torch Song released a version of the song on I.R.S. Records. Danish rock band Sort Sol released a version of the song on their 1987 album Everything That Rises Must Converge Sinéad O'Connor released a version of this song in 1995. Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole covered the song on their album Great Women of Country ( 2014 ). Lorrie Morgan covered the song at a slower pace for her 2016 album Letting Go... Slow. Morgan says of recording the song with producer Richard Landis, `` Richard purposely slowed the record down to make the musical passages through there really feel kind of spooky and eerie. Everything just felt so swampy and scary. Everybody has their own interpretation of that song and just what they threw off of the Tallahatchie Bridge. '' In 2017, Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove covered the song on their album Under The Covers. Paula Cole recorded a version on her 2017 Ballads album. Parodies and adaptations Bob Dylan 's `` Clothes Line Saga '' ( recorded in 1967 ; released on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes ) is a parody of the song. It mimics the conversational style of `` Ode to Billie Joe '' with lyrics concentrating on routine household chores. The shocking event buried in all the mundane details is the revelation that `` The Vice-President's gone mad ! ''. Dylan 's song was originally titled `` Answer to ' Ode ' ''. A comedy group named `` Slap Happy '' recorded `` Ode to Billy Joel '' in the 1980s, which was featured on the Dr. Demento show. In this version, the singer is alleged to have jumped from the Verrazano - Narrows Bridge. Jill Sobule 's album California Years features `` Where is Bobbie Gentry ? '' which uses the same melody in a lyrical sequel. The narrator, seeking the reclusive Gentry, claims to be the abandoned lovechild of Gentry and Billie Joe, i.e., the object thrown off of the bridge. Sobule would later write the introduction to a book on Gentry. Bibliography Murtha, Tara ( 2015 ). Ode to Billie Joe. 331⁄3. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. XV + 142. ISBN 978 - 1 - 6235 - 6964 - 8. References Jump up ^ `` Number One Song of the Year : 1946 - 2014 ''. Bob Borst 's Home of Pop Culture. Jump up ^ https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/6405-the-200-greatest-songs-of-the-1960s/?page=3#144 Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Jump up ^ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/100-greatest-country-songs-of-all-time-20140601/47-bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe-1967-0849545 ^ Jump up to : `` Biography ''. Ode to Bobbie Gentry. Archived from the original on October 26, 2009. Jump up ^ An Actress with a Big Secret, Oxnard Press - Courier, November 19, 1967, p. 42. Page found 2011 - 07 - 30. ^ Jump up to : Studer, Wayne ( 1994 ). Rock on The Wild Side : gay male images in popular music of the rock era. Leyland Publications. pp. 97 -- 98. ^ Jump up to : Tobler, John ( 1992 ). NME Rock ' N ' Roll Years ( 1st ed. ). London : Reed International Books Ltd. p. 239. CN 5585. Jump up ^ Bobbie Gentry artist biography at CountryPolitan.com, now offline. Archived version. Jump up ^ In an interview with Bob Harris broadcast by BBC Radio 2 in Bob Harris Country on April 16, 2009, singer Rachel Harrington claimed that Gentry originally wrote eleven verses, but deleted six because a record producer thought the song was too long. Jump up ^ `` Jumpers Get Fines ''. Daily Kent Stater. Kent. 9 January 1969. Retrieved 10 November 2014. Jump up ^ `` Jon Andreas visa '' ( in Swedish ). Svensk mediedatabas. October 1967. Retrieved April 17, 2012. Jump up ^ `` flavour of new zealand - search listener ''. Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2016 - 10 - 01. Jump up ^ Roberts, David ( 2006 ). British Hit Singles & Albums ( 19th ed. ). London : Guinness World Records Limited. p. 225. ISBN 1 - 904994 - 10 - 5. Jump up ^ Hot R&B / Hip - Hop Songs, October 21, 1967 Jump up ^ `` Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada ''. Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Top 100 Hits of 1967 / Top 100 Songs of 1967 ''. Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2017 - 04 - 05. Jump up ^ `` ' Ode To Billie Joe ' Was A Surprise Hit That Prompted Dozens Of Jazz Versions ''. 2017 - 07 - 14. Jump up ^ `` Detroit Emeralds - Shades Down / Ode To Billy Joe - Ric - Tic - USA - RT - 138 ''. 45cat.com. Retrieved 2016 - 10 - 01. Jump up ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn6L9gd8ch8 Jump up ^ Lorrie Morgan - Looking Back... and Looking Forward Retrieved February 17, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Under The Covers CD Rustblade -- Label and Distribution ''. Rustblade. Retrieved 2017 - 06 - 23. Jump up ^ Dylan, Bob ( 1975 ). `` Bob Dylan : `` Clothesline '' ``. The Basement Tapes. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007. Jump up ^ Greil Marcus ( 1997 ). Invisible Republic : Bob Dylan 's Basement Tapes. New York : Henry Holt. p. 286. ISBN 9780805033939. Jump up ^ `` Ode to Billy Joel ''. madmusic.com. Retrieved February 20, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Ode to Bobbie Gentry ''. The American Spectator. Retrieved July 27, 2017. Jump up ^ `` New ' 33 1 / 3 ' book explores life of mysterious chanteuse Bobbie Gentry ''. L.A. Times. Retrieved July 27, 2017. External links The Mystery of Billy Joe Included in the Billboard Book of Number One Hits Preceded by `` All You Need Is Love '' by The Beatles Billboard Hot 100 number one single August 26 -- September 16, 1967 Succeeded by `` The Letter '' by Box Tops Joe Dassin Studio albums Joe Dassin à New York Les Deux Mondes de Joe Dassin Joe Dassin ( Les Champs - Élysées ) Joe Dassin ( La Fleur aux dents ) Joe Dassin ( Elle était... Oh ! ) Joe 13 chansons nouvelles Joe Dassin ( Si tu t'appelles Mélancolie ) Joe Dassin ( Le Costume blanc ) Le Jardin du Luxembourg Les Femmes de ma vie 15 ans déjà... Blue Country Home Made Ice Cream Compilations Le Meilleur de Joe Dassin ‎ Ses plus grands succès Songs `` Les Dalton '' `` Marie - Jeanne '' `` Siffler sur la colline '' `` Comment te dire '' `` Ma bonne étoile '' `` Le Petit Pain au chocolat '' `` Le Chemin de papa '' `` Les Champs - Élysées '' `` C'est la vie, Lily '' `` Billy le Bordelais '' `` L'Amérique '' `` Cécilia '' `` La Fleur aux dents '' `` L'Équipe à Jojo '' `` Taka takata ( La Femme du toréro ) '' `` La Complainte de l'heure de pointe '' `` Le Moustique '' `` Salut les amoureux '' `` Si tu t'appelles Mélancolie '' `` L'Été indien '' `` Ça va pas changer le monde '' `` Et si tu n'existais pas '' `` Salut '' `` Il était une fois nous deux '' `` Le Jardin du Luxembourg '' `` À toi '' `` Et l'amour s'en va '' `` Dans les yeux d'Émilie '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ode_to_Billie_Joe&oldid=843043841 '' Categories : 1967 songs 1967 singles Songs written by Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry songs Nancy Wilson ( jazz singer ) songs Margie Singleton songs The Detroit Emeralds songs Billboard Hot 100 number - one singles Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist ( s ) Capitol Records singles Debut singles Teenage tragedy songs Songs about suicide Songs about men Hidden categories : All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from October 2016 CS1 Swedish - language sources ( sv ) Use mdy dates from May 2013 Articles with hAudio microformats All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Deutsch Français Nederlands Русский Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 26 May 2018, at 13 : 50. 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Question: who sang the song ode to billy joe
Answer: Bobbie Gentry