"Harper Valley PTA" is a country song written by Tom T. Hall,[1] which in 1968 became a major international hit single for country singer Jeannie C. Riley. Riley's record, her debut, sold over six million copies as a single, and it made her the first woman to top both the Billboard Hot 100 and the U.S. Hot Country Singles charts with the same song (but not at the same time), a feat that would not be repeated until Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" 13 years later in 1981. It was also Riley's only Top 40 pop hit.
Publisher Newkeys Music, Inc. filed the original copyright on December26,1967(1967-12-26), which was revised on October28,1968(1968-10-28), to reflect new lyrics added by Hall.[1]
Nashville studio musician-producer Jerry Kennedy played the dobro prominent on the record.[2]
Story
The focus of the song's narrative is Mrs. Johnson, whose teenage daughter attends Harper Valley Junior High. The girl comes home one day with a note for her mother from the local PTA, criticizing Mrs. Johnson for wearing short dresses and spending her nights drinking in the company of men. The note closes with a statement by the PTA that she should do a better job of raising her daughter.
During a PTA meeting that afternoon, Mrs. Johnson barges in unannounced and wearing a miniskirt and reveals a long list of the members' private indiscretions:
Bobby Taylor, who has repeatedly asked Mrs. Johnson out on a date and whose wife is hinted to be committing adultery while he is away[3]
Mr. Baker, whose secretary had to leave town for an undisclosed reason
Widow Jones, who leaves her window shades up and little to onlookers' imaginations
Mr. Harper, absent from the meeting due to the aftereffects of a recent drinking binge
Shirley Thompson, who also has a drinking problem, as evidenced by gin on her breath
Mrs. Johnson rebukes the PTA for having the nerve to call her an unfit mother, comparing the town to Peyton Place and labeling the members as hypocrites.[4]
In the final lines, the narrator reveals that Mrs. Johnson is her mother.[4]
The song makes two references to short hemlines ("you're 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 television show Peyton Place, based on the earlier novel and film of the same name, where 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 P.T.A." was released.[5]
The final line of the song ("..the day my mama 'socked it to' the Harper Valley PTA") was a reference to "Sock it to me!", a very popular catch-phrase frequently used in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. According to Shelby Singleton, producer of Riley's record, this line was changed at the last minute, at the suggestion of his "wife at the time".[6]
Inspiration
In 2005, Hall noted that he had witnessed a similar scenario when he was a child in Olive Hill, Kentucky, in the mid-1940s; the mother of one of Hall's classmates had drawn the ire of local school board members for her modern ways, and the school was taking out their frustrations on her daughter. The mother gave a verbal tongue-lashing at the school, an iconoclastic move that was unheard of at the time.[7]
Legacy
Riley, who was working as a secretary in Nashville for Jerry Chesnut, got to hear the song and recorded it for Shelby Singleton's independent Plantation Records label. It became a massive hit for her. The single's jump from 81 to 7 in its second week on the Billboard Hot 100 in late August 1968 is the decade's highest climb into that chart's Top Ten.[8] Riley's version 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 2019, the 1968 recording of the song by Riley on Plantation Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[9]
Shortly after "Harper Valley PTA" reached its peak in success, singer-comedian Sheb Wooley, using his alter-ego Ben Colder, recorded a parody version called "Harper Valley PTA (Later That Same Day)." In the parody version, Colder meets up with the PTA board members (each of whom Mrs. Johnson called out in the original) at Kelly's Place and attempts to explain their characters in a positive vein. He eventually finds the PTA members more interesting to be with. Colder's version reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in late 1968, and No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In the 1970s, Riley became a born-again Christian, and though she briefly distanced herself from the song when she began singing gospel music, she never excluded it from her concerts, and it was always her most requested and popular number. She titled her 1980 autobiography From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top, and released a gospel album in 1981 with the same title.
Sequel
In 1984, Riley recorded a sequel song, "Return to Harper Valley", which was also written by Tom T. Hall, but failed to chart. In the sequel, Riley sings as Mrs. Johnson, who is now a grandmother. While attending the local high-school dance, she observes that some townsfolk conquered their vices while others did not. She also notices both students and adults engaging in risky behavior (smoking, drug use, nudity), but instead of becoming angry, she says a prayer (consistent with Riley's real-life conversion to Christianity), and plans to address the PTA the next day, but in a less confrontational manner than before.
Norwegian translation
"Harper Valley PTA" was translated by Terje Mosnes[no] into Norwegian as "Fru Johnsen" (lit.'Mrs. Johnsen'). A recording by Inger Lise Rypdal was released in 1968.[10] It charted for 16 weeks, peaking at first place, which it held for nine weeks in a row.[11] However, the song faced controversy over its lyrics as they discussed double standards in the Christian milieu, leading to serious debate over the song in the Storting (Norwegian Parliament).[12]
Spanish translation
A Spanish cover by the name "La Junta Harper de Moral" (Harper's Moral Committee) was recorded by the Argentinian singer Juan Ramón and the orchestra of Horacio Malvicino, released by RCA Victor in 1968 .
Thomas Hall, known professionally as Tom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller", was an American country music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 No. 1 hit songs, with 26 more that reached the Top 10, including the No. 1 international pop crossover hit "Harper Valley PTA" and "I Love", which reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He is included in Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Songwriters. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame alongside his wife Dixie in 2018.
Plantation Records was a country music record label of the 1960s and 1970s helmed by Shelby Singleton. The label is best known for Jeannie C. Riley's 1968 hit "Harper Valley PTA", which topped both the country and Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Jeannie C. Riley 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.
Harper Valley PTA is an American sitcom television series based on the 1978 film of the same name, which was itself based on the 1968 country song of the same name recorded by singer Jeannie C. Riley and written by Tom T. Hall. The series, starring Barbara Eden who reprised her role from the film, aired on NBC from January 16, 1981 to August 14, 1982.
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in 1968.
"9 to 5" is a song written and recorded by American entertainer Dolly Parton for the 1980 comedy film of the same name. In addition to appearing on the film soundtrack, the song was the centerpiece of Parton's album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs, released in late 1980. The song was released as a single in November 1980.
In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) is the third solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on February 3, 1969, by RCA Victor. The album was produced by Bob Ferguson. It peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album's title track was the only single released and it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Inger Lise Rypdal is a Norwegian singer and actress in many different genres: pop, rock, theater, film, and musical. She is the sister of singer Maj Britt Andersen and was married (1969–1985) to guitarist and composer Terje Rypdal.
Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Jr. was an American record producer and record label owner.
Feminine Fancy is a studio album by American country music artist Dottie West. It was released in December 1968 and was produced by Chet Atkins. The album was West's tenth studio recording and third to be released in 1968. It was the third album of West's career to not include any singles. Most of the album's 12 tracks were cover versions of country and pop hits of the era.
"The Generation Gap" is a song written by Charlie Craig, Betty Craig, and Jim Hayner and recorded by American country music singer Jeannie C. Riley for her 1970 studio album of the same name. Released as the B-side to her single "My Man", it peaked at number 62 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in December 1970. The song was later covered by Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. It was released in December 1988 and peaked at number 50 on the ARIA Charts.
Your Squaw Is on the Warpath is thirteenth solo studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. It was released on February 17, 1969, by Decca Records.
Billboard Top Pop Hits is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1994 and 1995, each featuring ten recordings from the easy listening charts from a specific year in the 1960s. Ten albums in the series were released, one each for the years from 1960 to 1969.
Benjamin James Peters was an American country music songwriter who wrote many #1 songs. Charley Pride recorded 68 of his songs and 6 of them went to #1 on the American country charts. Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.
Songs That Made Country Girls Famous is a studio album by Lynn Anderson released in 1969. The album became Anderson's second top ten LP on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, peaking at #9.
The following is a list of notable events and releases of the year 1980 in Norwegian music.
Little Things is a studio album by American country artist Jeannie Seely. It was released on December 16, 1968, by Monument Records and was co-produced by Fred Foster and Jim Malloy. The record was Seely's fourth studio album recorded and released. It spawned three singles in 1968. Two of these singles became hits on the Billboard country chart. The album would be Seely's final studio release while recording for Monument.
The Trip is a 2021 Norwegian action horror comedy film starring Aksel Hennie and Noomi Rapace. Hennie and Rapace portray Lars and Lisa, a couple who are fed up with each other and plan on murdering each other during their trip to their cabin. However, their plans go awry when three fugitives take them captive.
↑ Larsen, Svend Erik Løken (1999–2005). "Inger Lise Rypdal". SNL (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 7 August 2022. Riktig kontroversiell og enda mer populær var oppfølgeren, Fru Johnsen, en oversettelse av den amerikanske "Harper Valley P.T.A.". Den norske teksten, av Terje Mosnes, omhandlet i likhet med originalen temaer som hykleri og dobbeltmoral i kristne miljøer; den ble prompte oppfattet som blasfemi, krevd forbudt fra indremisjonshold og seriøst debattert i Stortinget, hvorpå den solgte i over 50 000 eksemplarer.["Fru Johnsen", a translation of the American "Harper Valley P.T.A.", was quite controversial and even more popular than the original. The Norwegian text, by Terje Mosnes, like the original, dealt with themes such as hypocrisy and double standards in Christian mileu; it was promptly perceived as blasphemy, demands that it be banned from inner mission were made and the song was seriously debated in the Storting, after which it sold over 50,000 copies.]
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