Ode to Billy Joe “Billie Joe Mcallister Jumped Nine Years Later, Warner Bros
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Ode to Billy Joe “Billie Joe McAllister jumped Nine years later, Warner Bros. de- some lengths to give us a touching, off the cided to turn the song into a fea- convincing portrait of its people.” ture film and hired author Herman Much of that sensitive, touching Tallahatchie Bridge” Raucher (Summer of ’42) to do so. romantic tragedy can be attributed He met with Gentry, who told him to the wonderful score by Michel In 1967, Billie Joe jumping off the that while the song was inspired by Legrand. Tallahatchie Bridge was one of the a real life event, she didn’t really hottest topics of that summer, all know why the person on whom Legrand had already scored an- over the world. The fact that it all she’d based Billie Joe committed other hit Warner Bros. film written had to do with a surprise number suicide. She gave Raucher permis- by Herman Raucher, Summer of one hit song shows the power sion to take the story in whatever di- ’42, providing that film with an in- of great storytelling. Everyone rection he felt was right. Max Baer, candescent score and getting an was conjecturing what it was that Jr. directed and produced the film Oscar for it. For Ode to Billy Joe, was thrown off the Tallahatchie – he was, at the time, best known he wrote a score of great beauty, Bridge and why Billie Joe had for playing Jethro Bodine on the hit basically variations on a theme, killed himself. It became part of TV series The Beverly Hillbillies. and one of his most beautiful popular culture almost instantly. Young actors Robby Benson and themes at that. Legrand was and Bobbie Gentry, the song’s writer Glynnis O’Connor were cast in the is one of the great film melodists of and singer, who’d been signed leads, along with Joan Hotchkiss, all time and his music is instantly to Capitol Records, had recorded James Best (giving a sensitive and identifiable and unique to him. what was going to be her first sin- wonderful performance), and oth- While it’s a short score, it does ex- gle, the planned “A” side of which ers. Raucher changed the spelling actly what it needs to do in the film. was called “Mississippi Delta.” The of Billie to Billy and his screenplay “B” side was a song called “Ode to fleshed out the events of the song, Ode to Billy Joe was released on Billie Joe.” The original recording and gave the audience the reason LP by Warner Bros. Records. This was just Gentry, guitar, and eleven for Billy Joe’s jumping off the Tal- is its first CD release. In addition to verses of the song, lasting seven lahatchie Bridge. Legrand’s score cues, the album minutes. At some point, the folks also contained the classic Gentry at Capitol brilliantly decided that The film was a box-office hit. Va- song as well as some country-fla- the song had more potential than riety led off its review with “Ode vored source cues. It has been “Mississippi Delta” and cut it by half to Billy Joe is a superbly sensitive mastered from the original album and brought in Jimmie Haskell, a period romantic tragedy based masters. wonderful arranger, to add strings. on Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit song It turned an interesting song done lyric. Robby Benson is excellent — Bruce Kimmel interestingly, into something wholly as Billy Joe, and Glynnis O’Con- other, and the record was an in- nor is outstanding as his Juliet.” stant smash, spending four weeks Roger Ebert, in talking about the as the number one pop song in the film having to explain what is not nation on the Billboard chart. When explained in the song, said, “The the dust settled, it was the third film explains. It had to, I suppose, most popular record of 1967 (be- because a movie based on a song hind “The Letter” by the Box Tops like ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ had to come and “To Sir, With Love” by Lulu). up with something or be accused It garnered eight Grammy nomina- of copping out.” He continued, tions, winning three for Gentry and “What’s good about the film is that one for arranger Haskell. it doesn’t just exploit the materi- als of the Gentry song. It goes to .