Jeannie C. Riley

Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson; October 19, 1945) is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA", which reached number-one on the Billboard Country and Pop charts.

Riley later saw moderate country music chart action but never again duplicated the success of "Harper Valley PTA". She became a born-again Christian in the mid-1970s and began recording gospel music during the late 1970s.

Riley was born in Anson, Texas, United States. As a teenager, she married Mickey Riley and gave birth to a daughter on January 11, 1966. The family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, after receiving a letter from Weldon Myrick, who heard a demo tape of Riley's and believed she could be successful. Riley worked as a secretary for Passkey Music in Nashville while recording demos on the side.

Riley's career was stagnant until former Mercury Records producer Shelby Singleton received a demo tape of Riley's voice. Singleton's fledgling label Plantation Records was starting to enjoy success. Seeing potential in the Tom T. Hall demo song "Harper Valley PTA", Singleton worked with Riley to record it. The record quickly became one of the best-known country music songs of all time. Riley was the first woman to top the Billboard pop and country charts with the same song.

"Harper Valley PTA" was released in 1968 and immediately became a hit. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts, a feat not repeated by a female artist until Dolly Parton's 1981 hit "9 to 5". The song is about Mrs. Johnson, a widowed woman who confronts members of the PTA after her daughter brings home a note from school critical of her mother's penchant for miniskirts and dating various men. Mrs. Johnson turns the tables on the PTA and exposes its hypocrisy one member at a time, noting that their private behavior is far worse than hers.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.