The B-side to Bobby Gentry’s first single was 7 minutes long, with 11 verses, and with all that room to work in, she went to town on the story.
When the record company pushed for it to be a radio single, the fat had to go and one of the great stories in song was honed.
The scene is set in two lines. Four characters are fully painted in three verses. And the entire story is paid off in one oblique, tragic line.
The top 3 singles of 1967 were this, The Letter and To Sir, With Love – which managed to tell its entire story just in the title.