Lyrics:

Words and Music by Bobbie Gentry

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door 'y'all remember to wipe your feet'
And then she said 'I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge'
'Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge'

'n' Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
'Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please'
'There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow'
'n' Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge