bobbie gentry sang the day billie joe mcallister jumped.
bobbie gentry sang the day billie joe mcallister jumped.
who sang the day billie joe mcallister jumped?
bobbie gentry
the june 12, 1975 issue of the "hollywood reporter" announced the completion of a $3.5 million deal between max baer, jr. and warner bros. pictures for a film based on bobbie gentry’s hit song, “ode to billie joe.” baer offered gentry and her publisher a large percentage of the film’s receipts, and paid herman raucher $250,000 and a share of the profits to write the screenplay. raucher was chosen to write the screenplay based on his script for "summer of '42". baer had intended to cast unknown actors in the lead roles of “bobbie lee hartley” and “billy joe mcallister.”
ode to billy joe (film)
the song begins on june 3 with the narrator, her brother and her father returning from farming chores to the family house for dinner. after cautioning them about tracking in dirt, mama says that she "got some news this mornin' from choctaw ridge" that "billie joe mcallister jumped off the tallahatchie bridge". at the dinner table, the father seems unmoved, commenting, "billie joe never had a lick o' sense", before asking for the biscuits and adding that there's "five more acres in the lower forty, i've got to plow." her brother is intrigued ("i saw him at the sawmill yesterday ... and now you tell me billie joe has jumped off the tallahatchie bridge"), but not enough to be distracted from the midday victuals. he recalls a prank that he, "tom", and billie joe played on the narrator.
ode to billie joe