Bobbie Gentry Vinyl Records
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.