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Golden Classics of

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Curb's compilation of Bobbie Gentry's music is good (see "Greatest Hits"), but for a true representation of her work, "The Golden Classics of Bobbie Gentry" has all the right elements.

The first ten tracks are not all hits per se, but rather, is Gentry's full #1 album originally named after its #1 hit "Ode to Billie Joe." (Gentry's album was the only one to knock the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" off it's long 15 week run atop the Billboard 200). No doubt about it, most of the songs sound the same. Each tries to resemble to powerful affect of "Billie Joe." Some succeed, some do not. (The ones that do include "Chickisaw County Child" and "Bugs.")

However, this album is a classic to treasure not only because of its musical credibility (each song is an excellent effort and a prime example of Gentry's genre) , but because of its pop-culture appeal. "Billie Joe" (the song and the album) came out at the end of the 'summer of love' in 1967, marking the end of a historical period, but the beginning of a new one.

The last eight tracks are hits of Gentry's. Standout cuts include: "He Made A Woman Out of Me," "Fancy," and the best - "Apartment 21." Also included are three wonderful duets with Glen Campbell. "Morning Glory" remains their standout tune.

As the other reviewer noted, this is a compilation of the entire 1968 "Ode to Billie Joe" LP plus subsequent singles and three duets with Glen Campbell, with whom Gentry recorded an LP in 1969. The "Ode" LP (tracks 1-10) is of a piece : primarily acoustic, atmospheric, well-sung and well-picked (Bobbie Gentry was a pretty fair country guitarist) with splendid, subtle accompaniment (some strings, harmonica). The sound quality isn't bad and actually reveals some bad engineering on the original recordings (Gentry was too closely miked and you can hear her pop a few p's, etc.); this however does not detract from the enjoyment of this disc. I can do without the Glen Campbell duets, frankly; Campbell (whom I like) dominates and the arrangements are perfunctory. I would prefer a straight reissue of the "Ode to Billie Joe" LP with original artwork and perhaps some illuminating notes (there is a poor-sounding import available elsewhere on Disky), but this is nice enough for fans and the curious alike.

Born in 1944, Bobbie Gentry spent her Mississippi childhood in grinding poverty before moving to California--and in 1967 she came out of nowhere to knock The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" off the top of the music charts with a simply constructed yet very powerful ballad of love, loss, and mysterious death titled "Ode to Billy Joe."

The fact that the song was such a monster hit was in some ways unfortunate: in terms of commercial success Gentry was never able to top it, and although she released several albums, enjoyed several popular singles, made numerous television appearances, and eventually evolved into a notable Las Vegas headliner, casual listeners regarded her as a "one hit wonder." The truth, however, was quite different. Gentry created a memorable body of work that continues to influence singers and songwriters to this day.

THE GOLDEN CLASSICS doesn't encompass all of Gentry's work, not by a long shot, and it focuses primarily upon her earliest work--but it gives you a very good idea of what she did, and what she did was utterly unexpected. She fused folk, blues, country, and the occasional rock and roll flourish into a personal idiom, and her subject was the joys and sorrows and observations of a poor rural girl's life.

If her style and subjects were unique, so too was her voice, for it was a mix of contradictory elements, raw yet somehow silky, sexy yet oddly detached. Then and now, the result is utterly unique. "Ode To Billy Joe" remains the song for which Gentry is best recalled, but it is only one aspect of her work. She is also quite capable of creating "Bugs," a commentary on the insects that plague the Mississippi delta, both down-home and very sly. The collection is also interesting for its inclusion of Gentry's other major hit single, "Fancy," and a sampling of her duets recorded with Glenn Campbell.

In the late 1970s Gentry walked away from the spotlight, and while most believe she presently resides in Los Angeles she has so effectively disappeared that no one can be quite certain of where she is, much less of what interests she presently pursues. Whatever the case, she was a true original, and while the songs here could use a remaster THE GOLDEN CLASSICS is an excellent point at which to begin an exploration of her work.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

The Golden Classics of Bobbie Gentry is an excellent album of some of the best from Bobbie Gentry, an underrated singer and performer who deserves so much more recognition than she gets. This album has many of her fine tunes and the sound quality is wonderful. The artwork is also very nicely done.

"Mississippi Delta" starts the CD off with Bobbie singing so very well--and she never misses a beat, either! Bobbie's voice is rich, slightly deep and very vibrant; this enhances her performance even more and the musical arrangement makes great use of the percussion as Bobbie sings this one out loud and clear! "Chickasaw County Child" was a huge hit for Bobbie Gentry; I love the strings and Bobbie never sounded better--I love it! The melody works wonders for this ballad and Bobbie's excellent diction bolsters her singing very nicely. In addition, "Sunday Best" is quite a strong number that features Bobbie squarely in the spotlight--right where she belongs! Bobbie sings this with feeling and the strings are once again used very nicely in the melody.

"Papa Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You" has a strong country beat with some brass that enhances this melody; Bobbie sings this with great sensitivity and I'm quite impressed. The musical interlude is brief but very lush and I think "Papa Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You" is a major highlight of this album.

"Hurry Tuesday Child" has beautiful music to accompany Bobbie as she sings this to perfection--and beyond! Of course, there's also the incredibly famous Bobbie Gentry hit entitled "Ode To Billie Joe." "Ode To Billie Joe" is hauntingly beautiful and the story it tells is quite memorable as well. "Ode To Billie Joe" is easily my personal favorite song on this CD. "He Made A Woman Out Of Me" has a country flavor that seems mixed with a dash of soft pop rock from the `70s era; and this all works very well for this ballad. The backup female singers harmonize very well as they bolster Bobbie Gentry's delivery of this tune.

"Apartment 21" is a new song to me; but I almost instantly liked it and I think that you will, too. Bobbie Gentry delivers this with panache and her ability to handle tempo and key changes proves that she's a champ! "All I Have To Do Is Dream" is a wonderful cover of this song with a fine male backup chorus; and the CD ends nicely with Bobbie Gentry performing "Mornin' Glory." "Mornin' Glory" is a duet that you're bound to like.

Fans of Bobbie Gentry will love this album and this is also a great starter CD for newcomers to Bobbie Gentry's artistry.

Thank you, Bobbie!

Following the stellar success of 'Ode', the B side of her first single, Bobbie never quite scaled those commercial heights again. At least not in the US -- in Europe, especially Britain, she remained a major star for some years. In fact, the first song of hers I heard, in Britain, was the A side of that debut single, Mississippi Delta, and I have been a devoted fan ever since.

There are several of her compilations currently listed, though not the complete boxed set that she and her fans deserve. This album is the best one to start with. If you like what you hear, you could go on to sample the others, ripping and burning, buying and selling until you have the collection you should have been able to buy in the first place.

This is difficult music to classify, and is all the better for that. There are soulful, bluesy elements, Cajun rhythms and folksy ballads, all imbued with Bobbie's unique voice and style. There is also a rich vein of humor in her songs -- Bugs, which I had not heard before, is hilarious. The rather lush orchestral arrangements, characteristic of the late sixties/early seventies, on some of the tracks, may or may not be to your taste. But her voice - husky, sexy, melodic, always richly emotional - is what matters.

Billy Joe, why did you jump? Bobbie G, where did you go?

Buying it for the second time. It seems to have disappeared from my collection. Music like this will never be recorded again. I grew up listening to it with my mom. Niki Hoeky makes it worth the price alone.

It was always perfectly obvious to me what Billie Jo McAllister and the narrator of Bobbie Gentry's classic country story-song, "Ode To Billie Jo" threw off the Tallahassee Bridge. It was an aborted fetus, and later, Billie Jo doesn't jump, but is pushed off the Tallahassee Bridge. There is a haunting sense of guilt in Gentry's slow southern drawl as she sings of a lazy summer when dread hung over the dusty delta like a merciless sun. What a great song. It still sounds as inviting and mysterious, alt-country really, as it did when it ruled the AM radio airwaves in 1967. Only one other song on this greatest hits package measures up to the class act of 'Billie Jo', and that is "Fancy", an upcharged, very cool hit record telling the story of a prostitute's rise to fortune, with great Americana folk - just this side of tragi-corny lines like, "Your Pa's run off and I'm real sick and the baby's gonna starve to death." It was a colorless mid-nineties remake hit by Reba McIntyre, but this original is a slick pop masterpiece with a chugga-chugga tamborine and percussion musical break, and some hip street talk as the singer hooks up with 'Sean', who becomes "a congressman and an occasional aristocrat" and buys her a Georgia mansion. "Oklahoma River Bottom Band", a failed 45rpm single, is a delta-bluesy, sluggish Mississippi River ballad with a southern jug band equivalent of Beatles' White Album mystique; Gentry sings in seeming reference to the phenomenal success of 'Billie Jo' - "I told you society, green apple piety, death of variety, Oklahoma river bottom band." Most the other songs on this Collectables CD (18 in all), although strong delta-blues inspired compositions, are buried in an over production of incidental orchestration, and the duets with Glen Campbell, from Capital Records', "Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell", are atrocious, with Gentry unsuccessfully trying to tind a comfortable octave among Campbell's perfect tenor. The CD has a brief bio of Bobbie Gentry, but fails to mention she quit the 'business' in the '70s, and never returned, and remains today a missing oddity, like a sane Syd Barrett of country music.

I grew up listening to this album, but since my record player died and I moved on to compact disc, I've lamented the absence of "Ode To Billie Joe" from my CD collection. Now it can return to its pride of place :)

This is a great CD!!! Hearing "Ode to Billie Joe" and Bobbie's other classics was a great trip down memory lane. However, it took Amazon over 30 days to deliver this item and that was only after numerous emails. There attitude of "just wait a few more days and email us again" was both insulting and annoying. Thank goodness this wasn't a Christmas gift for someone.

The music world is noted for its list of 'one hit wonders.' Lynn Anderson, Teena Marie, and Bobbie Gentry. I was curious as to the number of "Hits' that Ms. Gentry had, so I ordered the album. There was, as I expected, only one.