The biggest question of 1967 was: What exactly did Billie Joe MacAllister and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? Also, why did Billie Joe commit suicide the next day by jumping off the bridge himself? No one knew, actually, not even Bobbie Gentry who wrote the song, but there was a lot of speculation. I remember at the time, everyone who I was acquainted with believed it was a baby that they threw off the bridge. We will probably never know for sure.

Bobbie Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter in 1944 in Chickasaw County, Mississippi and was one of the first country female singers to write and produce her own material. She drew from her Mississippi roots and southern ways to compose most of her music. Roberta Streeter grew up living with her grandparents and learned to play the piano by watching a friend play. She later moved to California and began a musical career. One day, she saw the movie Ruby Gentry which starred Jennifer Jones and decided the name Gentry was cooler than Streeter and, so, she became Bobbie Gentry. One night about 3:00 a.m., she suddenly woke up and the line was running threw her head, “Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.” That’s all she had, but she wrote it down and from that she built up the entire song.

“Ode to Billie Joe” was recorded on July 10, 1967. It took about an hour to put in down on tape, with Bobbie just playing the guitar. Violins and other instruments were added later. It was meant to be the B-side of a record where the A-side was a song called “Mississippi Delta.” When the disk jockeys got the record, they liked the B-side better and so, “Ode to Billie Joe” became a hit. Everyone was surprised when “Ode to Billie Joe” hit number one on the pop charts. And even though Bobbie Gentry was basically a country artist, the song didn’t do that well on the country charts, only getting to number 17.

Bobbie Gentry has always been perplexed about the fascination of what was thrown off the bridge. To her, the real message of the song is why the people sitting around the table eating are no nonchalant about the fact that Billie Joe just committed suicide. A friend was dead and all they can think about is “passing the biscuits” and the food they are eating.

An answer to what was thrown off the bridge came in 1976 when they produced a movie based on the words of the song. The movie starred Robbie Benson as Billie Joe and, in the movie, he throws a ragdoll off the bridge and then commits suicide because he was unsure of his sexual preference. Being gay was a bigger deal in 1976 than it is today. Of course, that is just one interpretation.

“Ode to Billie Joe” debuted on the pop charts on August 5, 1967 and three weeks later, it was number one, staying at the top for four weeks.

And, here, live from The Smothers Brothers Show is Bobbie Gentry: