What's the Story Behind "Ode to Billy Joe"?

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"It was a the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day" . . . This is the opening line to perhaps one of the most iconic Mississippi music songs. Radio stations around Mississippi will be playing "Ode to Billie Joe," the debut song by Mississippi's own Bobbie Gentry.

Bobbie Gentry, whose real name is Roberta Lee Streeter, was born in Chickasaw County. She grew up in a Baptist church, where gospel songs proved her first exposure to music. She wrote her first song at age 7. Her parents divorced, and Bobbie and her mother moved to California. Here, she would begin teaching herself to play a number of instruments.

The influence of Mississippi and a combination of the blues, gospel, and country music never lifted off the life of Gentry. She began playing "gigs" as a teenager, and, after graduating high school, she moved to Las Vegas, continuing to work in music and entertainment.

She recorded the original "Ode to Billie Joe" in a quick, forty-minute session. Originally, the song was meant to be a "B-side" to a song named "Mississippi Delta." However, DJs around the country began playing that "B-side," and the song became immensely popular.

One of the most intriguing lines is in the first verse. The "story" set to lyrics mentions a dinner guest who mentions - in front of the parents of the anonymous storyteller - that he'd seen "a girl that looked a lot like you" with the deceased Billie Joe McAllister throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Many listeners wondered - just what did they throw off the bridge, and why did Billy Joe jump to his death not too long after?

Gentry was somewhat reclusive after becoming famous, but she did tell one interviewer that the object - whatever it might have been - wasn't the central message of the song. The message was meant to be the "nonchalant way (the storyteller's family) discussed the suicide" of a local young man. "They sit there eating their peas and apple pie and talking, without even realizing that Billie Joe's girlfriend is sitting at the table, a member of the family."

"Ode to Billie Joe" would sell 750,000 in its first week of release. It would also knock The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" out of the top spot on the music charts. It remained a number one song for four weeks.

Gentry would eventually "check out" of the music business. She recorded some music for the movie "Ode to Billie Joe," then, in 1975, she began to refuse any press or media - no interviews, no performances.

As of 2016, an investigation found that Bobbie Gentry was supposedly living in Memphis in a gated community; however, sources vary on this information.

Her mysterious song - why the storyteller was seen with Billie Joe at the bridge and why Billie Joe jumped to his death - is as mysterious as the life of seclusion that Gentry herself has lived.