BOBBIE GENTRY – "I'll Never Fall In Love Again"

This Guy’s In Love was, now that I think of it, one of the three titles that tied at the top of the BBC Top of the Pops chart in the summer of 1968.

Uncharacteristically grudging marks on this and Je T’aime, Tom, although indeed neither is a particularly highpoint in the singer’s career…

Typical, Sinker always gets the blame…

Dionne Warwick’s version was the first single I ever bought (b/w “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?,” which I prefer as a song), along with Jackie DeShannon’s “What the World Needs Now” and the Ohio Express’s “Yummy Yummy.” I guess I was a big Bacharach/David fan, unknowingly, as a 10-year old.

I’ve never heard Gentry’s version. In fact, the only song of hers I’ve heard is “Ode to Billy Joe.” (Although I have heard “Fancy,” a big hit for Reba McEntire in 1991 written by Gentry.)

It seems like Gentry’s cover of this song might have been a move by her handlers to take a country act mainstream in a classy way, possibly with Vegas aor a variety show as the ultimate goal. In 1969, there were few more certain signs of classy mainstream pop than a Bacharach/David song.

Or, she might have just liked the song.

This was an album track pulled randomly for a single, surely. Not only does Bobbie have a cold but it almost prevents her from hitting the high notes – isn’t it in the wrong key for her?

The BBC still has tapes of her 1968 tv show which are quite something. She plays up the southern belle bit to the hilt and has guests like Donovan and The Hollies going all gooey-eyed. And yes she sings her own songs, just her and an acoustic guitar.

Maybe it was different stateside where it was even harder for a self-made woman to admit as much publicly than it was in Cilla-lovin’ Britain. No dope, Bobbie was happy to sing other people’s (well, men’s) songs on tv and on record. Her albums alternate between self-penned (Ode To Billie Joe, the phenomenal Delta Sweete) and ones that were heavy with covers (Local Gentry, Touch ‘Em With Love). The covers are classy, usually country soul-tinged, and some were obviously good enough to make number one without breaking sweat (or breaking out the cold remedies).

For my money, maybe after Dusty, she has the most sensual voice in all pop: Courtyard and Mornin’ Glory from The Delta Sweete make me hold my breath the way The Look Of Love, and pretty much nothing else, can.

It’s hard to hear the unapologetic Fancy – a UK flop released after this made no.1 and follow-up All I Have To Do Is Dream made 3 – without thinking it has an autobiographical element. Is Bobbie G seen as a feminist heroine? At least by Bust readers?

That line, “So, for at least until tomorrow’ one of the biggest ‘get-out’ lines since “what would we do without them?” in “I hate men” from “Kiss me kate”…

I remember this chiefly because it removed “Je T’Aime…” from the top. It had actually been played at the end of the previous week’s TOTP, an honour usually preserved for the actual number one, which of course it wasn’t then. I am delighted that it’s been confirmed that Bobbie had a cold whilst recording this – she sounded as if she was being inconvenienced by Charlie Manson, in fact. All in all, a typical Burt and Hal pigeon and not particularly wonderful really.

I wanted to correct the comment about Bobbie Gentry’s settlement with Bill Harrah and her “not having to work for thirty years” While she did receive a 3.5 million dollar settlement from Harrah, she made far more in her career. She made 3.2 million in royalties from Capitol Records. It became public record when musican Bobby Paris won 1% of her royalties in a lawsuit based on a verbal agreement and Gentry paid out 32 thousand in 1973. She made millions in Vegas with seven figure deals at The Landmark, The Frontier and The Dessert Inn , working up until her retirement in 1980. She made over 4 million in her deal with Warner Brothers to option Ode to Billie Joe into a motion picture, owning a 10% stake in the film. She continues to rake in millions from publishing. Ode to Billie Joe has over 100 covers and 40 million in record sales. Fancy has 10 covers with the Reba McEntire version alone selling 20 million on five Reba cd’s.

well, she did not have to work in show-biz but she did had an empire to run which included a piece of The Phoniex Suns Basketball team, several thousand acres of California farm land, a production and publishing company….

There are currently some recordings of BG (plus Donovan and James Taylor) that were made for the BBC in 1968 & 69 available here:
http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities07/ARbgbbc.html

Really getting into Bobbie Gentry – not this stuff though. In fact, I’ve realised I thoroughly dislike Bacharach and David’s style of writing. Their melodies and chord changes make me feel quite nauseous.

I must have been watching TOTP at this stage as I can remember as a kid being tickled by the line about getting enough germs to catch pneumonia if you kissed someone. It probably helped confirm a developing preadolescent awkwardness towards girls which I have now almost overcome.
The song is pleasant but nowhere near as compelling as ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ – which most likely inspired ‘Clothes Line Saga’ from the Basement Tapes. ‘Reunion’ cropped up on the soundtrack to season 2 of Fargo and made me want to check out The Delta Sweete album.