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 missed by one week simultaneously becoming the Billboard Country and Pop number-one hit.
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.
Early life and rise to fame
Riley was born in Anson, Texas, United States. As a teenager, she married Mickey Riley and gave birth to a daughter, Kim Michelle Riley, 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 hold the Number 1 spot on the pop and country charts with the same song.
Success of "Harper Valley PTA" "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.
Riley became an overnight sensation as the single earned her the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and was named the Country Music Association Single of the Year. Riley also became one of the few country artists ever nominated in the major pop Grammy Award categories of "Best New Artist" and "Record of the Year". The single sold over five and a half million copies worldwide and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. just four weeks after its release. The album of the same name sold over one million units to earn Riley another gold record.
The song's success helped Riley make country music history in 1969 as the first female vocalist to have her own major network variety special, Harper Valley U.S.A., which she hosted with Jerry Reed. The show featured performances by Mel Tillis and the song's writer, Tom T. Hall.
The song spawned a 1978 film and a 1981-82 television series, both titled Harper Valley PTA and starring Barbara Eden as the widow Mrs. Johnson.
After "Harper Valley PTA"
During the late 1960s and into the very early 1970s, Riley ranked among the most popular female vocalists in the country music industry. She had five Grammy Award nominations and four Country Music Association nominations, and performed a duet with Loretta Lynn. She had success on the country charts again, but on a lesser scale.
Other hits following "Harper Valley PTA" include "The Girl Most Likely," "There Never Was A Time," "The Rib," "The Back Side of Dallas," "Country Girl," "Oh Singer," and "Good Enough to Be Your Wife."
Riley became known as much for her sex appeal and beauty as for her music, foreshadowing Shania Twain and other contemporary female vocalists by nearly three decades. At a time when many country queens were keeping a wholesome image by wearing gingham dresses, Riley kept in tune with typical late-1960s fashion by donning miniskirts and go-go boots for her stage outfits (somewhat in the character of the protagonist in "PTA"). Her mod persona opened doors (and perhaps started a sexual revolution) in country music, as hemlines of other female country artists' stage outfits began rising in the years that followed. But Riley was not comfortable with that image, and she eventually abandoned it for a more traditional wardrobe (floor-length gowns and ankle-length dresses typically worn by other female country artists). In the 1993 CBS documentary, The Woman of Country, she noted that during the "Harper Valley" period, her publicist and manager were largely responsible for creating and playing up her sexy image (matching the character pictured on the "Harper Valley" album cover).