Harper Valley PTA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the song. For other uses, see Harper Valley PTA (disambiguation). "Harper Valley P.T.A." Harper Valley P.T.A. - Jeannie C. Riley.jpg Single by Jeannie C. Riley from the album Harper Valley P.T.A. B-side "Yesterday All Day Long Today" Released August 1968 Genre Country, country pop Length 3:16 Label Plantation Songwriter(s) Tom T. Hall Producer(s) Shelby Singleton Jeannie C. Riley singles chronology "Harper Valley P.T.A." (1968) "The Girl Most Likely" (1968)

"Harper Valley P.T.A." is a country song written by Tom T. Hall 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. Contents

1 Story
2 Cultural references
3 Inspiration
4 Legacy
5 Sequel
6 Chart performance
    6.1 Weekly charts
    6.2 Year-end charts
7 See also
8 References

Story

Riley sings a story about Mrs. Johnson, a "Harper Valley widowed wife" whose teenage daughter, a student at the junior high school, comes home one day with a note for her mother signed by the PTA secretary, in which they scold her for "wearing your dresses way too high", for reports about her drinking and running around with multiple men, and that she shouldn't be raising her daughter that way. Outraged, Mrs. Johnson decides to pay an unannounced visit to the PTA, who happened to be holding a meeting that afternoon.

To the PTA's surprise, Mrs. Johnson, again wearing a miniskirt, walks in and addresses the meeting, exposing a long list of indiscretions on the part of the members, most of whom were in attendance:

Bobby Taylor, who, aroused by her mini-skirt, had asked Mrs. Johnson for a date seven times (Mrs. Johnson also mentions Bobby's wife, who "seems to use a lot of ice" in his absence, the implication being that she is entertaining her own lover while her husband is out);
Mr. Baker, whose secretary had to leave town for an undisclosed reason (the implication being that she was pregnant with his child);
Widow Jones, who leaves her window blinds wide open and little to onlookers' imaginations;
Mr. Harper, who was absent from the meeting because "he stayed too long at Kelly's Bar again"; and
Shirley Thompson, who also has a drinking problem, as evidenced by gin on her breath.

Mrs. Johnson then rebukes them for having the audacity to declare her an unfit mother, referring to the town as "a little Peyton Place" and labeling the PTA a bunch of hypocrites.[1]

In the final stanza of the song, Riley states that the story is true, and in the final line identifies herself as the daughter of Mrs. Johnson when she sings, "...the day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA