Jeannie C Riley
Autographed Photo

Still in high school, Riley married Mickey Riley. Jeannie's Uncle Johnny took the couple on a trip to Nashville. There they met Weldon Myrick, who once performed at the Jones County Jamboree. Jones had become of Nashville's most in-demand steel guitar players. With the encouragement of Jones, The Rileys packed their bags and their new baby girl and headed for Nashville.

Jeannie worked as a secretary at Passkey Records and in her spare time tried to break into the music business. After cutting a number of demos, she finally got one released - "What About Them?" That record failed to make the charts.

Then a fortunate set of circumstances occurred for Riley. Margie Singleton (ex-wife of Shelby Singelton) was enamored with Bobbie Gentry's hit song "Ode to Billie Joe." Margie asked Tom T. Hall to write her a similar song. He came up with "Harper Valley P.T.A. The song was witty and the lyrics were memorable, but it didn't fit Margie Singleton's style.

Shelby Singleton had a better idea; he had recently heard a demo of a song called “The Old Town Drunk” about a town drunk whose coat had washed up on a riverbank. Thinking he was dead, the town conducted a memorial service. The old drunk sat on a hill and watched his own funeral. Shelby thought the girl who sang it would be a natural for "Harper Valley P.T.A. That girl was Jeannie. Harper Valley P.T.A was the first single released on Shelby Singleton's new company, Plantation Records.

Harper Valley P.T.A was a smash hit. It became the first single in history to simultaneously make it to the number one spot on both the pop and country charts. Jeannie won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and received Grammy nominations for "Best New Artist" and "Record of the Year."

Harper Valley PTA took on a life of its own. Everybody knew the lyrics, and everybody knew Jeannie C Riley. The song was the inspiration for a 1969 TV musical variety program hosted by Jeannie. Almost a decade later, Barbara Eden starred in a film adaptation of the song and a TV spin-off of the movie.

Jeannie C Riley followed up Harper Valley P.T.A. with several successful country singles and albums. In 1974, she began to delve into gospel, but still didn't totally leave the pop/country genre that had made her a household name.

Her book From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top was published in 1980. A gospel album of the same name was released just after the book was published.

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