Bobbie Gentry

Singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry was born in Woodland, Mississippi, and raised at her grandparents' farm. Her passion for music started at a young age, and she composed her first song at age 7. Gentry started performing as a duo with her mother at age 13, before moving away to Los Angeles for her studies. She performed at nightclubs and worked as a fashion model to support herself while studying composition, music theory and arranging. Her first songs released were duets with singer Jody Reynolds in 1966, but her actual debut came a year later with the album "Ode to Billie Joe" (1967), which quickly became a hit, reaching the top of Billboard 200. The album earned her three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. Her second album, "The Delta Sweete" (1968), in which she played almost all instruments, was a critical success. Gentry continued to release albums throughout the remainder of the 1960s, defining much of the sound of the decade in her genre. She was eventually invited to host a variety of shows on the BBC network due to her charismatic live performances. With the release of "Fancy" (1970), her sixth album, Gentry earned the nomination of Best Contemporary Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards. During the 1970s, Gentry would find herself in a stalemate with her label, unable to release more albums, but she still charted by releasing a new version of her first single for the movie "Ode to Billy Joe" (1976) based on it. Her last public performance was in 1982, after which the singer retired from public life.