Bobbie Gentry - Acoustic Demos (1967-1971)

Bobbie Gentry has a fairly small recorded legacy, consisting mainly of seven studio albums from 1967 to 1971. That was expanded significantly in 2018 with the release of "The Girl from Chickasaw County," a box set with lots of previously unreleased material. Scattered across the many discs of the box set are some acoustic demos. I prefer having them all together, since they fit well musically. So here it is. One can think of it as her "unplugged" album, since most of the songs are usually just Gentry's voice and her acoustic guitar.

All but one of the songs comes from that box set. The sole exception is the song "The Way I Do." That comes from the deluxe edition of the album "The Delta Sweete."

This album is 56 minutes long.

By the way, at the same time I posted this, I updated her other albums I've posted here. I improved the volume balance between songs and fixed the mp3 tags.

01 The Seventh Son [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
02 I Saw an Angel Die [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
03 Papa, Won't You Let Me Go to Town with You [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
04 Hurry, Tuesday Child [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
05 Niki Hoeky [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
06 The Way I Do [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
07 Morning to Midnight [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
08 Feelin' Good [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
09 I Didn't Know [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
10 Refractions [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
11 Louisiana Man [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
12 Sermon [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
13 Mornin' Glory [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
14 Jessye 'Lisabeth [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
15 Courtyard [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
16 Cotton Candy Sandman [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
17 Hushabye Mountain [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
18 Seasons Come, Seasons Go [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)
19 Smoke [Demo] (Bobbie Gentry)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15117223/BobbieGen_1967-1971_AcoustcDemos_atse.zip.html

The album cover photo comes from a TV special in April 1969 called "Spring Thing."

Bobbie Gentry - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1972

Here's the third and last of my three albums of Bobbie Gentry playing for the BBC.

Like the others in this series, many of the songs are officially released and are actual BBC performances, but I've fleshed things out with some unreleased BBC performances, plus some songs she did for various TV shows. Also like the others, there's a number of songs here that she never put on record in any form, including "I Want You Back" (by the Jackson 5), "Fire and Rain" (by James Taylor), a medley of "Mother Nature's Son" and "Blackbird" (by the Beatles), "Mr. Bojangles" (by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), and a medley that included the hits "Proud Mary," "Polk Salad Annie," and "Never Ending Song of Love." On top of that, there are some songs that were only released on her official BBC album as well as her "The Girl from Chickasaw County" box set, such as "Wailing of the Willow" and "Circle 'Round the Sun."

I'm not exactly sure why, but Gentry's recording career petered out around 1971, with her last album being released that year. So it's not that surprising that her TV and radio appearances petered out as well. She did continue to perform concerts in a few places like Las Vegas after that, but only released a handful of songs. So this is where this series naturally ends. The last majority of the songs here are from her active years up to 1971, with only the last song dating from 1972.

This album is an hour long.

UPDATE: On August 13, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I added an unreleased song I'd previously missed, "But I Can't Get Back - I'll Fly Away - Put a Little Love in Your Heart." I also got rid of most of the audience noise as I could for the tracks with audience noise, using the UVR5 program.

01 Sunday Morning (Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry)
02 If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody (Bobbie Gentry)
03 Benjamin (Bobbie Gentry)
04 I Want You Back (Bobbie Gentry)
05 But I Can't Get Back - I'll Fly Away - Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Bobbie Gentry & Goose Creek Symphony)
06 Fire and Rain (Bobbie Gentry & Andy Williams)
07 Open Your Window (Bobbie Gentry)
08 Mother Nature's Son - Blackbird (Bobbie Gentry)
09 Mr. Bojangles (Bobbie Gentry)
10 Your Number One Fan (Bobbie Gentry)
11 Montego Bay [Edit] (Bobbie Gentry)
12 Golden Slumbers - California Dreamin' - 500 Miles - But You Know I Love You (Bobbie Gentry)
13 He Made a Woman Out of Me (Bobbie Gentry)
14 Billy the Kid (Bobbie Gentry)
15 Wailing of the Willow (Bobbie Gentry)
16 Belinda (Bobbie Gentry)
17 Circle 'Round the Sun (Bobbie Gentry)
18 Sunshine Sunshine - Sunny Skies - Good Day Sunshine (Bobbie Gentry)
19 Niki Hoeky - Proud Mary - Polk Salad Annie - Never Ending Song of Love (Bobbie Gentry & Bobby Darin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/W2Csynrg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/L5iUbbkZDLTh6Vp/file

I'm glad to say that, like the two earlier albums in this series, I was able to find an actual photo of Gentry at the BBC for the album cover. This one is a still from her BBC TV show, dating from 1971. The colors were a bit off, but I did some tweaking to improve that. In February 2025, I further improved the cover with the help of the Krea AI program.

Bobbie Gentry - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1968-1970

Here's the second of three albums of Bobbie Gentry at the BBC. As I said previously, there's been an official BBC album released for her, but I've managed to find a lot of material not included on that, making this three albums instead of one.

On this album, 10 out of the 19 songs remain officially unreleased. Most of those are from other TV show appearances, but a couple are from BBC shows that didn't get included on the official release for some reason, maybe because they were duets. In fact, speaking of duets, she does a bunch of those here,  singing songs with Bing Crosby (twice),  James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and John Hartford and Roy Clark. I presume there are more with Campbell that I didn't find, since the two of them did a whole duets album together during this time period.

As with the other albums in this series, some of the songs here haven't been officially released by her in any form. Many of those are the duets, like "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," "Something's Wrong," and "Shady Grove."

This album is 51 minutes long.

UPDATE: On February 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I only made some minor changes. I changed the cover art, and got rid of the crowd noise from the few songs that had crowd noise, using the MVSEP audio editing program.

01 Niki Hokey - Barefootin' (Bobbie Gentry)
02 Penduli Pendulum (Bobbie Gentry)
03 Ace Insurance Man (Bobbie Gentry)
04 Chickasaw County Child (Bobbie Gentry)
05 Okolona River Bottom Band (Bing Crosby & Bobbie Gentry)
06 Little Green Apples (Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry)
07 Recollection (Bobbie Gentry)
08 Sweete Peony (Bobbie Gentry)
09 Something's Wrong (Bobbie Gentry & James Taylor)
10 Sandman's Comin' (Bobbie Gentry)
11 Refractions (Bobbie Gentry)
12 Greyhound Goin' Somewhere (Bobbie Gentry)
13 Cotton Candy Sandman (Bobbie Gentry)
14 Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Bing Crosby & Bobbie Gentry)
15 Rainmaker (Bobbie Gentry)
16 Shady Grove (Bobbie Gentry, John Hartford & Roy Clark)
17 When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder - In the Sweet By-and-By (Bobbie Gentry)
18 Fancy (Bobbie Gentry)
19 Bayou Baby - On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain (Bobbie Gentry & Johnny Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N8BDTz14

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cTrkeiVX7RLhU66/file

The cover art photo comes from a BBC TV show in 1968. I actually cropped it from a larger photo that includes her doing a duet with Donovan. (The songs from that are on the first volume.) If you look at the bottom right corner, that tiny bit of purple is from Donovan's clothes. In February 2025, I upgraded the cover art with the help of the Krea AI program.

Bobbie Gentry - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

I'm continue to prioritize posting BBC sessions whenever I can. In making these, I've noticed that the vast majority of artists with enough material for BBC albums are British. Of course that makes sense for logistical reasons. But there are a few exceptions, usually American artists. Surprisingly, Bobbie Gentry is one of them. It seems she had an occasional BBC TV show. It only ran an average of couple of times a year for about three years, but she performed a lot of songs per episode.

There is an official Bobbie Gentry BBC album. Also, the 2018 box set "The Girl from Chickasaw County" included all the BBC performances from that, plus more. However, they missed a lot. I found lots of other performances she did for BBC TV and other TV shows, enough for three albums. I'm not sure why some of these haven't been officially released, as some of them come from the exact same BBC TV episodes as some songs that were released. But for whatever reason, I'm fixing that here. However, as usual, I'm only including one version of each song. That's especially important in her case, or I'd end up with a bunch of different versions of "Ode to Bobby Joe."

Gentry has a relatively limited discography, since she only put out albums from 1967 to 1971, then a small trickle of songs after that. So it's a pleasant surprise for me to find that she did a lot of songs on her BBC TV show and other TV shows that she never did in the studio.  As an example, consider that the first six of seven songs here were never officially released in any format back in the day, and all seven still remain unreleased.

I've included two songs only as bonus tracks. The bonus track version of "Louisiana Man" was performed just by Gentry. But I've included a different version that was a duet between her and the Hollies that I think is more interesting. Still, since the other version has been officially released, I figure it at least merits inclusion as a bonus track. The song "My Dog Sargent" is kind of a jokey lark of a song that she wrote when she was a little kid. I don't consider it worthy of repeat listenings, but it has been officially released as a BBC performance, so I included it as a bonus track. 

This album is 55 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

UPDATE: On February 10, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I added three songs that I'd missed, all unreleased performances from her BBC TV show. (They're the last three tracks.) I also got rid of the audience cheering for the few songs that had cheering.

01 The Look of Love (Bobbie Gentry)
02 Lazy Willie (Bobbie Gentry)
03 The Story I'm about to Tell You [The Ballad of High Noon] (Bobbie Gentry)
04 I Wonder as I Wander (Bobbie Gentry)
05 Peaceful (Bobbie Gentry)
06 Bugs (Bobbie Gentry & Donovan)
07 There Is a Mountain (Bobbie Gentry & Donovan)
08 Mornin' Glory (Bobbie Gentry)
09 Sunday Best (Bobbie Gentry)
10 Hurry, Tuesday Child (Bobbie Gentry)
11 Louisiana Man (Bobbie Gentry & the Hollies)
12 Mississippi Delta (Bobbie Gentry)
13 Papa, Won't You Let Me Go to Town with You (Bobbie Gentry)
14 I Saw an Angel Die (Bobbie Gentry)
15 Ode to Billie Joe (Bobbie Gentry)
16 You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' (Bobbie Gentry & Long John Baldry)
17 Come Away Melinda (Bobbie Gentry)
18 Here, There and Everywhere (Bobbie Gentry)

Louisiana Man (Bobbie Gentry)
My Dog Sargent (Bobbie Gentry)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9snM2azf

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Ly9rBsZFLPsXksh/file

The image I chose for the cover art doesn't have the best resolution. But I chose it because it actually comes from one of her 1967 BBC TV shows. I took a screenshot from a video of her playing "Ode to Billy Joe." In February 2025, I upgraded the image with the help of the Krea AI program.

Bobbie Gentry - Thunder in the Afternoon - Non-Album Tracks (1972-1978)

Bobbie Gentry has had a severely underestimated musical career. Most people probably think of her as a one hit wonder if they know of her at all, due to her 1967 number one smash "Ode to Billie Joe." But she had a lot more success than that, including another number one hit in Britain, and she wrote most of her own songs. That was highly unusual for a female single back in the 1960s (or for a long time after that).

I think a big reason she's underestimated is because what happened to her career after 1971. From 1967 to 1971, she released at least one album a year. But then she turn to producing and starring in her own Las Vegas stage shows for the rest of the 1970s, and almost entirely stopped writing or recording new music. Then, stranger still, in 1981 she quit show business entirely. She's lived in seclusion ever since, to the point that she hasn't even given a single interview since then!

In 2018, a big box set called "The Girl from Chickasaw County" was released. It's received a lot of praise and awards as the best archival release of the year, and it's caused many to take Gentry's career more seriously. But unfortunately, it includes most, but not all of her recorded output. The biggest problem is she switched record companies in 1972, and only recorded a little bit after that. So those post-1972 recordings aren't included.

That's what this album is for. I've included the A- and B-sides of a 1972 single that has been included on the box set, because those songs didn't come out on any albums otherwise. Then I have two songs recorded in 1974 and 1975 respectively. Tracks 5 and 6 are from a 1977 appearance on the TV show "Des O'Connor Tonight," which includes a duet with Des O'Connor on the song "Until It's Time for You to Go." But the remainder of this album, tracks 7 through 11, comes from an album session she had in 1978. It's generally known as the "Thunder in the Afternoon" session, which is why I gave this album that title. Unfortunately, only two songs were released at the time, as the A- and B-sides of a flop single. Three more were released on compilations many years later. Whatever else was recorded then has stayed in the vaults.

I wouldn't have bothered with this album if the songs were bad or only okay, but I think this is some of Gentry's best stuff! Some songs suffer a bit from dated late 1970s production values, but not too much, and the quality of the songs shine through.

UPDATE: On August 12, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I added two songs I'd missed, "Until It's Time for You to Go," and "What'll I Do," after randomly stumbling across them on YouTube.

01 The Girl from Cincinnati (Bobbie Gentry)
02 You and Me Together (Bobbie Gentry)
03 Another Place, Another Time (Bobbie Gentry)
04 Salome Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Bobbie Gentry)
05 Until It's Time for You to Go (Bobbie Gentry & Des O’Connor)
06 What'll I Do (Bobbie Gentry)
07 Steal Away (Bobbie Gentry)
08 He Did Me Wrong, but He Did Right (Bobbie Gentry)
09 Slow Cookin' (Bobbie Gentry)
10 Sweet Country (Bobbie Gentry)
11 Thunder in the Afternoon (Bobbie Gentry)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/shU9CUwV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ReumciUSfVcAiDP/file

In putting this album together, I stumbled across the official Bobbie Gentry website (http://bobbiegentry.org.uk). I really liked the main background photo they used there, including a green coloring they added to it. So I decided to use that as the cover of this album. I even kept the coloring and font of her name.