Small-town Texas gal Jeannie C. Riley is unusual in that she was a country singer who made a single foray into the pop market and ended up with a No. 1 hit: Harper Valley P.T.A., a song writen by Tom T. Hall before he became famous. Maybe she had seen her share of small-town mean spiritedness where she grew up in Anson, TX, or perhaps she was upset that she was being pressured into doing a pop song and that Plantation Records wanted her to adopt the cheesey stage name Rhonda Renae. Whatever it was, her sassy voice was just right for this song about class differences in the small-town setting. The song really resonated.
Her later records couldn't match the success of Harper Valley P.T.A., nor did the gospel music she recorded after being "born again."
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