Spotlight on... Bobbie Gentry

Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944, Chickasaw County, Mississippi), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter. Gentry is one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material. She wrote much of her own material, drawing on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.

With her U.S. number 1 album, Ode to Billie Joe, and the Southern Gothic narrative of the title track, she won the Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy awards in 1968. "Ode to Billie Joe" was the fourth most popular song in the United States in 1967. Gentry charted nine singles in Billboard Hot 100 and four singles in the United Kingdom Top 40. After her first albums, she turned towards the variety show genre. After losing her popularity in the 1970s, she quit performing and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.

Roberta Streeter is partially of Portuguese ancestry. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she was raised in poverty by her mother, on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. After her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended elementary school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play guitar, bass, and banjo and vibes, and sang at a local country club while she was in high school. At 13, she moved to Arcadia, California to live with her mother, Ruby Bullington Streeter. She had a half sister Rosemary in Vancouver,Canada. Her sister was much younger and grew up to be a teacher.

Roberta Streeter graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. She chose the stage name "Bobbie Gentry" from the 1952 film Ruby Gentry (starring Jennifer Jones as a heroine born into poverty but determined to make a success of her life) and began performing at local country clubs. Encouraged by Bob Hope, she performed in a revue of Les Folies Bergeres nightclub of Las Vegas. Gentry then moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA as a philosophy major, and supported herself by working in clerical jobs, occasionally performing at local nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to hone her composition and performing skills. In 1964, she made her recording debut, with a pair of duets – "Ode to Love" and "Stranger in the Mirror" with rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds.
Her career failed to take off, however, and she continued performing in nightclubs until Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon heard a demo she recorded in 1967.

Gentry married casino entrepreneur Bill Harrah in Reno, Nevada, but the marriage lasted only briefly. In 1979, Gentry married singer-songwriter Jim Stafford. Their marriage lasted 11 months. Gentry had one son with Stafford by the name of Tyler.

In 1967, Gentry produced her first single, "Mississippi Delta"/"Ode to Billie Joe", detailing the suicide of Billie Joe McAllister, who flings himself off the Tallahatchie Bridge. The song used a traditional blues scale, lowered the 3rd and the 7th degree. The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in August 1967 and placed #4 in the year-end chart. The single hit #8 on Billboard Black Singles and #13 in the UK Top 40. The single sold over three million copies. The Rolling Stone listed it among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2001.

The LP replaced Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the top of U.S. charts. It also reached #5 of the Billboard Black Albums charts. Bobbie Gentry won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She was also named the Academy of Country Music's Best New Female Vocalist. In February, 1968 Bobbie Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo, as one of the two performers (alongside Al Bano) of the song "La siepe" by Vito Pallavicini and Massara. In a competition of 24 songs, the entry qualified to the final 14 and eventually placed ninth.

Gentry’s later albums did not match the success of her first. In 1968 she collaborated on the album Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, which achieved a gold record. In October 1969 Gentry's "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David reached number one on the UK singles chart for a single week. In January 1970, it became a number-six hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for Dionne Warwick.

In 1970 she received recognition for her composition, “Fancy”, which rose to

#26 on the U.S. Country charts and #31 on the pop charts. Gentry’s view:

"Fancy" is my strongest statement for women's lib, if you really listen to it. I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues that they stand for — equality, equal pay, day care centers, and abortion rights.

The album, as the rest of her post– “Ode to Billie Joe” records, had little commercial success. However, it brought Gentry an Academy of Country Music Award and a Grammy nomination, both in the category of Best Female Vocalist.

Gentry continued to write and perform, touring Europe, generating a significant fan base in the United Kingdom and headlining a Las Vegas review for which she produced, choreographed, wrote and arranged the music. In 1974, Bobbie Gentry hosted a short-lived summer replacement variety show, The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, on CBS. The show, which served as her own version of Campbell's hit series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, also on CBS, was not renewed for a full season. That same year, Bobbie Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. In 1976, Baer directed a feature film Ode to Billy Joe based on her hit song, starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. In the movie, the mystery of the title character's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and his emerging homosexuality. Bobbie Gentry's re-recording of the song for the film hit the pop charts, as did Capitol's reissue of the original recording; both peaked outside the top fifty. Her behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interest. After a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records, "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right", failed to chart, Bobbie Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearance as a performer was on Christmas Night 1978 as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After that, she settled in Los Angeles and remained out of public life.

In the hectic atmosphere of 1967, Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" stood out with its simplicity and integrity. Bobbie Gentry is one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material. Typically her songs have autobiographic characteristics. Bobbie Gentry charted 9 singles in Billboard Hot 100 and 4 singles in the UK Top 40.

Bob Dylan's 1967 "Clothesline Saga" mimiced the conversational style of "Ode to Billie Joe", with lyrics concentrating on routine household chores containing a shocking event buried in the mundane details (the revelation that "The Vice-President's gone mad!" In 2004, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule began performing a song called "Where Is Bobbie Gentry?" about the mystique surrounding Gentry since her retirement from the public eye. The song appears on Sobule's 2009 album California Years. Beth Orton wrote another song called "Bobbie Gentry" and released it on her 2003 album The Other Side of Daybreak. On their 1984 album, The Third Album, the Scottish band Orange Juice sang about "the lovely face of Bobbie Gentry" in "Out For The Count".

Wikipedia

BOBBIE GENTRY - THE VERY BEST OF

1. I'll Never Fall In Love Again

2. Something In The Way He Moves

3. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

4. All I Have To Do Is Dream (with Glen Campbell)

5. Walk Right Back (with Glen Campbell)

6. Seasons Come, Seasons Go

7. Son Of A Preacher Man

8. You've Made Me So Very Happy

9. Mississippi Delta

10. Ode To Billie Jo

11. Tobacco Road

12. The Fool On The Hill

13. Eleanor Rigby

14. Here, There And Everywhere

15. Where's The Playground, Johnny

16. Gentle On My Mind

17. In The Ghetto

18.Little Green Apples (with Glen Campbell)

19. My Elusive Dreams

20. Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)

Spotlight on... Sandra Tindall

It was inevitable that I would eventually come across the superb voice of Matt Monro. My Dad was in the army based at Portland in Dorset and my Mum was a Weymouth girl. He also played the trumpet and sang in the army band at the popular ‘tea dances’ of the time. My Mum loved dancing to this music, and could be found spending every spare moment there. This didn’t stop after I was born as apparently from a few months of age I was passed from sailor to sailor when the ‘fleet was in’ while Mum continued dancing and Dad playing! So when the war ended and they moved to Dad’s hometown of Lincoln the music continued. Dad joined a local dance band playing and singing and home tutoring people on the trumpet. Mum was still dancing me round the room to the strains of Sinatra, Doris Day and the Big Bands of the time. As I became a teenager I thought I was fed up of the music I had heard all of my life and began to enjoy the British rock’n’roll music of Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Cliff etc. Then one day I heard a song on the radio sung by someone called Matt Monro. The song was Love Walked In, which I had heard being played in our house over the years. That was it, I was hooked by the voice and it went on from there.

If I had to describe Matt’s voice I would say it is an absolute flawless quality from beginning to end, whatever he sings. My favourite single song would have to be One Day a song of love and hope. An album has to be Matt sings Hoagy Carmichael, timeless songs beautifully sung. I have never been keen of Exodus; I much prefer it as an instrumental. With reference to his film themes, my very favourite is The Precious Moments from the film The Sea Wolves closely followed by On Days Like These and Wednesdays Child.

I think that Matt’s singing on these films added to the whole experience of the film itself, as you couldn’t help but pay attention as that marvellous voice rang out on the soundtrack. He should have received an Oscar as well as the songwriters because his interpretation of their winning songs were a major factor to their success.

We were very fortunate to see Matt ‘live’ twice. In 1978 we saw him in Newark. The most memorable part of that evening was listening to him sing If I Never Sing Another Song because the words, ’in my heyday young girls wrote to me’ brought memories flooding back of myself being one of those young girls! I think I was always writing to him as I had a real ‘crush’! Imagine my delight to receive a handwritten letter thanking me for writing. And then a reply to another letter I had written saying that my husband John and I were coming to Blackpool for our ‘honeymoon’. Matt was appearing in summer season at the North Pier and I asked if it would be possible to meet him after the show. The typewritten reply signed by him said yes!

And so, on August 17th 1963 after watching the show in front row seats we were taken to meet him. I don’t have to tell you how super he was to us; you wouldn’t expect me to say anything else would you? He soon put us at our ease, although what we talked about I haven’t a clue, I was too much in shock. I know that John and he had a cigarette, and that we all had a drop of whisky. He was happy to pose for a photo, and then to top it off Morecambe and Wise came into the dressing room too and had a few words.
We floated on air for the rest of the week, even getting tickets to see the same show again the next night. A never forgotten memory.

I personally would like to have seen more ‘swing’ numbers on his past albums, as I am a huge fan of big band music. It’s great to see more of these songs appearing now as in The Rare Monro. Having only just ‘discovered’ the website I wasn’t aware of ‘Fans Reunited’. I am certainly enjoying reading and occasionally ‘chipping in’ with everyone’s banter to each other and it would probably be nice to meet everyone ‘in the flesh’. I didn’t know anything about ‘Friends of Matt Monro’ either so will probably join.

www.mattmonro.com seems to be unique, I don’t know of any other site where there is such up to the minute information on relevant or irrelevant topics on a near daily basis. Everyone seems so friendly and to know that Michele is always there too must make it particularly unique. As for the Forum I know nothing about its history, it is definitely worth fighting for. I can understand how people come to reply on it so it must have been a big shock to find it missing one day. But it is up to all of us to make sure it is well used.

A follow up to The Rare Monro would be the icing on the cake. OF COURSE it was worth the five years hard work for us as Matt’s fans. To listen to such tracks as New York, New York, Birth Of the Blues and The Wrong Time was great for us, but the cost must have been tremendous. And then of course Matt Sings Nelson Swings -it certainly does!

If Matt had done a seasonal album it would have been up there with such greats as Sinatra, Cole and Williams but I never connected him with one until I was asked. If money wasn’t an object I would give blanket advertising in every newspaper and magazine when a new CD/DVD came out. I would also hire a theatre and do something on similar grounds to what we saw at the Palladium a few years ago. It was a tribute to Sinatra with actual footage of him on a big screen behind dancers in front, interpreting his songs as they were played. It was very impressive and superbly done. The recent release of DVDs is an unbelievable bonus, who would have thought that such material would come to light? I don’t think they could ever ‘flood the market’ with Matt’s material – the more the better and I can’t wait for Matt at the BBC.

Richard Moore’s input must be absolutely invaluable. The quality of the latest materials and how he answers even the hardest questions put to him on the Forum, the man must be a genius!

It was a most exciting experience being contacted by Michele after I asked a question on the ‘other unofficial site’ after finding some old reel-to-reel tapes in my attic. After playing them I found that they included some Jules Styne numbers and I wondered if Matt had actually ever recorded these songs. At Michele’s request I sent these tapes off to Richard in the hope that he can find something of use to him.

We went to see Matt Jnr at Nottingham Concert Hall and enjoyed the show. We spoke to him afterwards too and told him our story. The hardest part for him is balancing the material of his Dads, which obviously people want to hear, while making the show enjoyable in his own right. I have to say I wasn’t aware that he had released a solo album after ‘Monro sings Monro’ which worked very well.

What prompted my ‘love affair’ with Matt? It was the voice, the voice, the voice! I started putting cuttings in a scrapbook in about 1962 as more and more stuff was written about Matt. It was also a period in my life where through circumstances I was at home all day and playing his songs helped me through that time. I carried on from there really. I also worked in a record shop for a while, so was able to keep up to date with poster material etc. The result is two tatty scrapbooks full of clippings rather amateurishly done!

Matt proved that you didn’t have to be American to be a superstar. He was a world-class singer ranking high in the list of singers throughout the world, putting the British Music Industry to the fore.
From what I have read about Matt over the years, the things I have heard people say about him in interviews and the type of person I get the impression Michele is, I am really looking forward to the book that is coming out next year in line with Matt’s 25^th anniversary. I would be surprised if she wasn’t objective and I am sure it will be a jolly good read.

The CD I would take on a desert island has to be The Singers Singer as I would get 4 CD’s for the price of one! I have only just found out that it has been deleted so it makes it extra special knowing I have one of only 2000 printed.

SIMPLY THE BEST in huge capital letters would be my three words to describe Matt.

To see some of Sandra's Matt Monro Memorabilia click here