Bobbie Gentry

Bobbie Gentry is one of the great legends of 1960s popular music, an artist who debuted with an enigmatic, enduring smash hit who then cultivated an idiosyncratic country-pop crossover sound for a few years before retreating from the spotlight, never to be heard from again. That hit was "Ode to Billie Joe," a spare, elastic bit of storytelling that rocketed to number one after its release in 1967. So powerful and popular was "Ode to Billie Joe" that it spun off a film adaptation about a decade after its release, by which time Gentry's career was effectively over. She didn't ma...