Bobbi Gentry
| Bobbie Gentry | |
|---|---|
Gentry in 1970
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roberta Lee Streeter |
| Born | July 27, 1944 |
| Origin | near Woodland, Mississippi, United States |
| Genres | Country, pop, soul |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1964–1981 |
| Labels | Capitol |
| Associated acts | Glen Campbell |
Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.
Gentry rose to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The track spent four weeks as the No. 1 pop song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967 and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40. Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s. Since 2010 Gentry has lived in a private gated community in Shelby County, Tennessee.
Gentry was born near Woodland in Chickasaw County, Mississippi to Robert and Ruby (Bullington) Streeter. She has a step-brother, also named Robert Streeter. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and her mother moved to California. She was raised on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County. Her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, and seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, banjo, and the vibraphone.
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