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June 3, 2022 7:48 am  #1


It Was The 3rd Of June: An Ode To "An Ode To Billie Joe"

I guess this comes up every year on this date, but it was the 3rd of June that the character in "Ode To Billie Joe" learns of her friend's suicide off the Tallahatchie Bridge. In the article below, it's pointed out that no one at the record company believed in the song, they put it on the B-side and there was a pretty lackadaisical attitude to its creation - with a last minute decision to put strings on it. 

It ended up as one of the bestselling songs of 1967, spent 4 weeks at #1 on Billboard and is considered a classic story-telling tune.

"Arranger Jimmie Haskell told MOJO, “I asked [Captial Records A&R man Kelly Gordon], ‘What do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘Just put some strings on it so we won’t be embarrassed. No one will ever hear it anyway.’ The song sounded to me like a movie—those wonderful lyrics. I had a small group of strings—two cellos and four violins to fit her guitar-playing. I was branching out in my own head for the first time, creating something that I liked because we thought no one was ever gonna hear it.”

Pretty amazing results for a song no one believed in. 

The Story Behind Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe”

 

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