Over at our other blog, we recalled on Christmas night that it was 30 years ago — Christmas night 1978 — that Bobbie Gentry performed on “The Tonight Show” and vanished into legend.
With that post, we served up this video …
… of the lovely Miss Gentry singing “Fancy” on “The Johnny Cash Show” on Jan. 21, 1970.
Tonight, on The Midnight Tracker, we serve up that song and the rest of Side 1 of “Fancy.”
It was the last big album for Gentry, reaching No. 34 among U.S. country albums and No. 96 among the Top 200 U.S. albums.
The tunes we offered over at AM, Then FM — “Fancy” and “Find ‘Em, Fool ‘Em and Forget ‘Em” are classic Gentry songs, telling the stories of strong women who know their way around weaker men. “Fancy” is the only song on this side that’s written by Gentry.
Side 1 also features a couple of gender-flipped covers — “Delta Man,” (Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady”) and “Something In the Way He Moves (James Taylor’s “Something In the Way She Moves”). Whether these work is your call.
Least interesting is Gentry’s cover of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David tune “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Gentry strains to hit some of the high notes. That said, it was the first hit version of the song, reaching No. 1 in the UK in October 1969. Dionne Warwick’s more familiar version didn’t hit No. 1 in the U.S. until the following January.
In any case, all worth listening to. Enjoy.
“Fancy,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” “Delta Man,” “Something In The Way He Moves” and “Find ‘Em, Fool ‘Em and Forget ‘Em,” Bobbie Gentry, from “Fancy,” 1970. It runs 15:22.
The album link is to a 2-on-1 CD that includes “Patchwork,” Gentry’s 1971 album.
The Midnight Tracker 