Harper Valley PTA

It was on this date in 1968 that Jeannie C. Riley made music history by becoming the first woman to top the Country and Pop charts simultaneously.

The song that did it was “”Harper Valley PTA”. The 23 year old singer released the song that would define her career, a tune that everyone knew would play well in Nashville and other country music hotbeds, but in big cities like New York and Los Angeles? It was hard to imagine the TWANG would be tolerated.

But tolerate they did. In fact, the sales for “Harper Valley PTA” in big markets without a track record for moving country records off the shelves was impressive.

So how did this musical nobody end up with such a smash?

Word is that it was Jeannie C. Riley’s SPEAKING voice that got her noticed. Fresh from her native Anson, Texas, Riley came to Nashville to pursue a singing career. Her day job was as a receptionist, however, and it was in this role that legendary country record producer Shelby Singleton noticed that voice. He immediately believed that Riley was the perfect fit for a Tom T. Hall song about the hypocritical residents of a fictional southern town.

Here’s a video of Riley performing her huge hit:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZPBUu7Fro

Ironically, Jeannie was never comfortable with the song—as many fans envisioned the tune to be an autobiographically authentic work. For awhile, Riley humored her audience by dressing the part, complete with the short skirts mentioned in the song.

After a time, Riley publicly sided with the conservative values expressed (however hypocritically) in her song, became a born-again Christian---and refused to ever perform her biggest (and only real hit) ever again.

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