Who was the star of the film based on the record Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C Riley?
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Harper_Valley_PTA.txt Jeannie_C._Riley.txt
Harper Valley PTA Jeannie C. Riley
"Harper Valley PTA" is a country song written by Tom T. Hall that was a major international hit single for country singer Jeannie C. Riley in 1968.  Riley's record sold over six million copies as a single. The song made Riley the first woman to top both the Billboard Hot 100 and the U.S. Hot Country Singles charts with the same song, a feat that would go unrepeated until Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" in 1981.

Story

The song tells the story of Mrs. Johnson, a widowed mother of a teenage girl, who becomes outraged when one afternoon her daughter brings home a note from her junior high school's PTA decrying Mrs. Johnson's supposedly scandalous behavior by small-town standards; which, according to the PTA, is setting a bad example for her daughter. In response, Mrs. Johnson attends the next PTA meeting (being held that same afternoon), wearing a miniskirt, to the surprise of the PTA members. She then exposes various episodes of misbehavior and indiscretion on the part of several members of the PTA, concluding with, "This is just a little Peyton Place / And you're all Harper Valley hypocrites."

Cultural references

The song makes two references to short hemlines ("you've been wearing your dresses way too high;" "wore her miniskirt into the room") in reference to the miniskirt and the minidress, which had been gaining popularity in the four years since they were first introduced.

The expression, "This is just a little Peyton Place..." is a reference to the wildly popular television show based on the earlier novel and film of the same name wherein a small town hides scandal and moral hypocrisy behind a tranquil facade. The show, then in the top 20 of Nielsen ratings, was in its fourth season when "Harper Valley PTA" was released. 

In the final line of the song the singer reveals herself as Mrs. Johnson's daughter, with the memorable line: "The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA", referring to the popular phrase of that period "sock it to me."  According to Riley's autobiography, this line was ad libbed at the recording session at the suggestion of someone at the session.

Legacy

"The country singer Margie Singleton asked Tom T. Hall to write her a song similar to Bobby Gentry's Grammy winning hit "Ode To Billie Joe", which she had covered the previous year, and which Gentry wrote and recorded in 1967. The melody is essentially the same as that of the Gentry song, but Gentry seemingly was never informed or given any credit by Hall. After driving past a school called Harpeth Valley Elementary School in Bellevue, Tennessee, Hall noted the name and wrote "Harper Valley P.T.A." about a fictional confrontation between a young widow Stella Johnson and a local PTA group who objected to her manner of dress, social drinking, and friendliness with town's men folk. Jeannie C. Riley, who was working as a secretary in Nashville for Jerry Chesnut, got to hear the song and recorded it herself and it became a massive hit for her."  

Tom T. Hall reportedly first offered the song to Skeeter Davis, who declined.  Plantation Records, the label on which Riley recorded the song, rush-released the single when they learned that both Billie Jo Spears and Margie Singleton had just recorded the song as well.  Riley's record was an immediate smash; Capitol Records did release Spears' version the same week, but it failed to chart.

Hall later stated that his inspiration for the song came when one day he was passing by the Harpeth Valley Elementary School in Bellevue, Tennessee, not far from his then-home in Franklin. He liked the sound of the name and decided to write a song using a similar place name. He also reportedly wrote the song about Olive Hill, Kentucky, where Hall grew up.

The song was later the inspiration for a 1978 motion picture and a short-lived 1981 television series, both starring Barbara Eden, playing the heroine of the song, Mrs. Johnson—who now had a first name, Stella.

Several other songs in the Harper Valley PTA album also told stories of some of the other characters from the song, including Mayor Harper, Widow Jones, and Shirley Thompson.

The classic Harper Valley PTA album cover shows a minidress-clad Riley—portraying Mrs. Johnson with PTA note in hand—standing beside a girl, who is obviously portraying the teenage daughter of Mrs. Johnson.

Jeannie C. Riley's recording of the song won her a Grammy for the Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.  Her recording was also nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Song of the Year" in the pop field.

In the 1970s, Riley became a born-again Christian, and started to sing  gospel music and briefly distanced herself from the song. However, she never dropped the song from her concerts and it was always her most requested and popular number.

Riley titled her 1980 autobiography From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top, and released a gospel album in 1981 with the same title.

Sequel

Riley recorded a sequel song, "Return To Harper Valley", in 1984 (also written by Hall) but it was not a commercial success.

In the sequel, Riley sings as Mrs. Johnson (instead of her daughter as in the original).  After purchasing a ticket to the high school dance (with the winner receiving a Stray Cats album) she decided to attend.  This time she decided to wear a full-length dress and mentions how some folks changed, some for the good (Bobby Taylor, who repeatedly asked her for dates, was now paying attention to his wife, while Mr. Harper and Shirley Thompson became sober and later married) and others for the bad (Mr. Kelly never stopped his alcohol abuse and died from cirrhosis as a result, while "Widow Jones" and an unnamed child died in a traffic accident as a result of her missing a curve due to speeding).

However, she noticed prevalent substance abuse among the youth, and initially decided to get a gun, but decided to pray instead.  After remembering her own wild behavior, she decides to attend the PTA meeting the following day and share her concerns.

Chart performance

Cover versions

*Cover versions of the song appear on albums by virtually every female country singer of the period; including Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Norma Jean, Bobbi Martin, Lynn Anderson, Jeannie Seely,  and Dottie West.  It has been performed by Lorrie Morgan in concert and was also covered by Billy Ray Cyrus, one of very few male artists to do so.
*Stikkan Andersson wrote the Swedish lyrics. Entitled "Fröken Fredriksson", it was Björn Ulvaeus' second solo single (Polar POS 162)
*"Harper Valley PTA" was translated into Norwegian by Terje Mosnes and performed by Norwegian singer Inger Lise Rypdal. The story of the song is the same although the setting is more Norwegian; the PTA is replaced by the Board for High Morale and is part of the church. The song was censored for some time at the national broadcasting channel, due to the line: "Is it from this group I have to hear that I'm not fit, because the rim of my skirt is closer to that heaven that none of you will be allowed to enter?" 
* Covered in icelandic by Þuríður Sigurðardóttir
*Country singer Martina McBride covered it for the Desperate Housewives soundtrack.
*Radio personality Fez Whatley is often heard singing his own cover version on the Ron and Fez show, a version he used to sing for his family as a child.
*Sheb Wooley, in his alter-ego of "Ben Colder", produced and recorded a parody of the song, called "Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later The Same Day)".
*Tammy Faye Bakker recorded a protest song to the tune of "Harper Valley PTA" in retaliation to the scandal in which she and husband Jim Bakker were involved in the late 1980s.
* Used in Mad Men Season 6, Episode 10 "A Tale of Two Cities"
* Squeeze covered the song on their 2015 album Cradle to the Grave Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson, October 19, 1945)[http://www.kanabel.com/jcrbiography.html]   is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA" (written by Tom T. Hall), which missed (by one week) becoming the Billboard Country and Pop number one hit at the same time.[http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/features/poprock2/011107ccdrMUSIConehit.2e827fbf.html]   In subsequent years, she had moderate chart success with country music, but never again duplicated the success of "Harper Valley PTA".  She became a born-again Christian and began recording gospel music during the late 1970s.

Early life and rise to fame

Riley was born in 1945 in Stamford, Texas. As a teenager, she married Mickey Riley and gave birth to a daughter, Kim Michelle Riley on January 11, 1966. Later, they moved to Nashville, Tennessee after receiving a letter from Weldon Myrick, who heard a  demo tape of Jeannie's and believed she could be successful. In Nashville, Riley worked as a secretary for Passkey Music while recording demos on the side.[http://www.kanabel.com/jcrharpervalley.html]  

Riley's career was stagnant until former Mercury Records producer Shelby Singleton received a demo tape of Riley's voice. Singleton was starting and succeeding with his own label, Plantation Records, at the time. He worked with Riley in the recording of the Tom T. Hall demo song that Singleton saw potential in, "Harper Valley PTA."  The record quickly became one of the best-known country music songs of all time.

The success of "Harper Valley PTA"

"Harper Valley PTA" was released in 1968. The song immediately became a hit for Riley and went to number one on both the Billboard Pop and Country charts, a feat not repeated until 1981 when Dolly Parton released "9 to 5". The song is about a widowed woman by the name of Mrs. Johnson, who confronts a group of members of the PTA after her daughter brings home a note from school that's critical of her (Mrs. Johnson's) habits of wearing miniskirts, going out with men, and other behavior of which they do not approve. The climax of the song comes when Mrs. Johnson turns the tables on the PTA and exposes their hypocrisy, one member at a time.

Riley and the song became an overnight sensation, and the song earned her the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and the Country Music Association 'Single of the Year' award.  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". Globally it sold over five and a half million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. just four weeks after the song's release. The album of the same name sold over one million units to gain a further gold disc for Riley. 

The song was a phenomenon which led to Riley making 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 along with Jerry Reed and featured performances by Mel Tillis and the song's writer, Tom T. Hall. 

The song spawned a 1978 film and a 1981-83 television series, both titled Harper Valley PTA and both 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.  Her mod persona opened many doors (and perhaps started a sexual revolution) in country music, but Riley herself was not comfortable with her image, and she eventually abandoned it for a more conservative wardrobe.  In the 1993 CBS documentary The Woman of Country, she noted that during the "Harper Valley" period, it was largely her publicist and manager who were responsible for creating and playing up her sexy image (replicating somewhat the look of the protagonist in the song).

Late 1970s and the 1980s

Riley's great success brought a number of offers from Hollywood, and she appeared with Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Bette Davis, Tom Jones, Ed Sullivan and others on various television programs.

Riley left Plantation Records for MGM Records in 1972, recording several albums, but only two of her singles from the period, "Good Morning Country Rain" and "Give Myself A Party," cracked the top 30.  Later stints at Mercury Records and Warner Bros. Records produced only a couple of charted singles, but Riley remained highly in demand as a concert artist well into the 1980s.

In the 1970s, she became a Born Again Christian and began recording gospel music.Murphy, Brien. [http://www.texnews.com/1998/2000/local/riley0812.html 'Harper Valley' singer finds strength in faith.] Abilene Reporter-News, August 12, 2000. Retrieved 2008-02-09. As result of her conversion, she distanced herself from the song for a time, due to its content. However, it was never removed from her live set and she still performs it. In 1980, she published her autobiography, From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top, which told her story of stardom in pop music to moving more into gospel music. The following year, she released a new gospel album with the same title.

Discography

Albums

Singles

* A "Harper Valley PTA" was certified Gold by the RIAA. "Harper Valley PTA" also made the Adult Contemporary Charts, hitting #4. In the UK, it went to #12 Pop.
* B B-side of the "The Back Side of Dallas."
* C B-side of "My Man."

Awards and nominations
Barbara Morehead Barbara Jean Morehead Barbara Eden
barbara morehead barbara eden barbara jean morehead
barbara eden
WikipediaEntity
Barbara Eden
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