W♥M: Bobbie Gentry

Castillo Kids - Ode to Billie Joe

This is part of a series of "lots of covers" of the same song that I'm doing. The first was Moon River and the second is Dream a Little Dream. I am told there is a Miss Piggy version of "Dream a Little Dream", which would've been nice to go with the Muppets Movie entry earlier.

So, we have here today, Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe". I don't think I know too many movies that were adapted from a pop song, but this song was made into "Ode to Billy Joe" (note the spelling of "Billie").

If you listen to the song, you can speculate that the character was secretly seeing Billie Joe. Her family was discussing his suicide at the Tallahatchie Bridge over dinner. The song never quite tells you why he killed himself, but the movie tried to explain why (I won't tell you since it will spoil the movie if you haven't already seen it).

So here's some covers of this popular song. I will quickly go over them:

Castillo Kids' version is pretty cute. They're 13, 10, and 8 years old. Their influences include The Beatles, Spongebob Squarepants and Pokemon.
Bobbie Gentry is the original singer and songwriter. This song basically put her on the map.
Bobbie Joe Spears has a Country-Western take on the song.
Jill Sobule is best known for her "I Kissed a Girl" song. She wrote a tribute song to Bobbie Gentry, naturally called "Bobbie Gentry". But unlike Beth Orton's song (which is misspelled as "Bobby Gentry"), Sobule's version stole the music and rhythem from "Ode..."
Sinead O'Connor decided it was best that this Southern song be transported to Ireland, where there is a Celtic feel to the music. I can't really picture Sinead in the harsh cotton fields, if you ask me.
Lee Hazelwood is one of the rare guy-singer to take on this song (since the song looks like it was from the perspective of a girl).
Sheryl Crow, well according to this live song, she claimed that she is influenced by Gentry.
The Enoch Light Singers is the most DIFFERENT of all these covers. What was originally a sad song about the suicide of Bobbie Joe is now a delightful-feel-good-song of the year. Too strange!
Wayne & Wax mashup is an interesting take because it took Tommy McCook and Lou Donaldson's version of "Ode..." and put it together with the original song. The result is a very slowed down version. I don't really like it as much because it feels artificial, but it's worth checking out.