Bobbie Gentry’s Famous “Third of June” Song Lives in the University of Mississippi
“There are some truly amazing things in the Ole Miss Archives! I have read that the recorded song was much longer, but at least 2, maybe 3, verses got edited out. The record company has looked for the original tape, with all the verses, and cannot find it!. I have also read that she sat by herself in the studio and sang and played guitar for the song. The strings were later added, and when she heard her song with the strings added, she thought her song had been “ruined”! Fortunately it had NOT been.”
– Starke Miller, local historian
About the Author
This song popped into my head last week, and I remember most of the lyrics but it bugged me that I couldn’t remember them all.
I was a young teenager in 1967 when this song was played on the local AM radio station. I really liked the song because it tells a compelling story tinged with mystery. Several times my friends and I sat around discussing the lyrics, especially the part about throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
We all decided that it had to be a gun, and that Billy Joe had accidentally killed a man. They were disposing of the gun so nobody would suspect him, but the cops were coming to get him, so he jumped off the bridge. That was the only speculation that seemed to make sense to us. Others had the baby/fetus theory, but that was just too unlikely even to our teenage imaginations.
I never saw the movie – it was released 9 years later and I was too over the song by then to care about seeing it.
I’d enjoy hearing Bobbie Gentry’s original song. The strings are my favorite part of the song, though. Especially the last 12 bars where the strings start at a very high note and tumble down to a very low note and holds it for 4 beats. It reminds me of flowers floating down and falling into the water.
Always wondered why the song title ended up Ode To BILLIE JOE. That’s the Southern vernacular for a female (ie Bobbie). Bobbie’s original lyrics were BILLY JO. Then changed to BILLY JOE. Then was recorded as BILLIE JOE by Atlanta records. It was my understanding that Bobbie was not happy!