Harper Valley P.T.A. (song)

Harper Valley P.T.A. is a pop and country song by Jeannie C. Riley, released in 1968. It hit #1 on both the country and pop charts, making Riley the only female to top both charts with the same song (though not at the same time), and won a Grammy for Best Female Country Performance.

The song came from a real-life incident witnessed by songwriter Tom T. Hall (a notable country star in his own right).

Sung from the viewpoint of a junior high school female, the daughter of a single mother (known only as "Mrs. Johnson" in the song; how she became a single mother is not mentioned, other than by being addressed as "Mrs." it implies she was previously married) receives a letter from the local Parent Teachers Association board, criticizing her mother for how she is raising her child.

Mrs. Johnson confronts the PTA board the following day. Wearing a miniskirt to the meeting, she proceeds to call out the hypocrisy of the board members (beginning with Bobby Taylor, who despite being married has asked her no fewer than seven times for a date), calling the board "a little Peyton Place".

The song would be made into a film (1978) and a short-lived television series (1981), both featuring Barbara Eden (best known as Jeannie from the series I Dream of Jeannie) as "Stella Johnson" and both prominently featuring the relationship between her and Bobby Taylor.

Riley tried to distance herself from the song after she became a born-again Christian, though she would ultimately relent as it was the most-requested song at her concerts. She later wrote a sequel, "Return to Harper Valley", where (as a grandmother) she would attend a fundraiser held by Harper Valley High. After witnessing several adults encourage bad behavior among the students, she decides to pray about the matter, and plans to speak the following day at the PTA meeting, though (consistent with Riley's own conversion) not taking the confrontational attitude as before.