Jeannie C. Riley

b. Jeannie Carolyn Stephenson, 19 October 1944, Anson, Texas, USA. Riley wanted to be a country singer, and, after marrying her childhood sweetheart, Mickey Riley, she persuaded him to move to Nashville. He worked in a filling station while she became a secretary on Music Row for music publisher, Jerry Chesnut. She also recorded demo records for his writers and her voice appealed to record producer, Shelby Singleton, who felt that Alice Joy's voice was too smooth on the demo for Tom T. Hall's song of small town hypocrisy, Harper Valley PTA, which owed much to Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe, and was more suited to a female singer than Hall himself. Riley recorded the song in one take and then rang her mother to tell her she had recorded a million-seller. It was an understatement as Harper Valley PTA topped the USA charts and sold over six million. It was a UK hit but only made number 12. With her mini-skirts and knee-length boots, Riley acted out the central character of Harper Valley PTA and she recorded a concept album about others in HARPER VALLEY. Her singles include The Girl Most Likely To, There Never Was A Time and The Back Side Of Dallas, but she had no other substantial hits. She started drinking and her marriage ended in 1970. By 1976, she was a born-again Christian and she and Mickey had remarried. A successful film based on the song was produced in 1978 and led to a television series, both starring Barbara Eden. Riley will not work in clubs which serve alcohol and although she has made Christian albums, everyone remembers the day she ‘socked it to the PTA’, hence her record, Return To Harper Valley in 1987.