Another sleepy dusty Delta day.
I was out chopping cotton, and my brother was baling hay,
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy, and they'll be nice to you
The song's popularity proved so enduring that in 1976, nine years after its release, Warner Bros. commissioned author Herman Raucher to adapt it into a novel and screenplay, Ode to Billy Joe (note different spelling). The poster's tagline, which treats the film as being based on actual events and even gives a date of death for Billy (June 3, 1953), led many to believe that the song was based on actual events. In fact, when Raucher met Bobbie Gentry in preparation for writing the novel and screenplay, she confessed that she herself had no idea why Billie killed himself. In Raucher's novel and screenplay, Billy Joe (played by Robby Benson) kills himself after realizing he is homosexual, and the object thrown from the bridge is the narrator's rag doll.
Phyllis, I love the, um, choreography in that video.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
"M-I-double S-I-double S-I-double P-I!"
There used to be a wonderful video on YouTube of Ella Fitzgerald singing the song to Fran Sinatra on one of his TV special, but it must have been taken down.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/04
PalJoey, I finally found it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nnDel-P54M
Thanks! I searched under "Billie Jo" and "Billy Jo"--I never thought to look under "Choctaw Ridge."
I don't know who's having more fun--Ella singing it or Frank watching her sing it.
This one is smoking hot.
Niki Hoeky
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/04
I didn't search "Choctaw Ridge" either -- I just kept looking for Ella/Frank videos and finally lucked out. I wonder if the uploader purposely named it that way as a (potential) deterrent to it being deleted. :shrug:
I don't know who's having more fun--Ella singing it or Frank watching her sing it.
Ain't it the truth!
Videos