A KOOL Day for Music

September of 1968 a song that was already a big hit on the American country charts crossed over onto the pop charts and kept going and then crossed over the Atlantic.

Jeannie C. Riley

Harper Valley P.T.A.

Song written by American country artist Tom T. Hall about an incident from his childhood growing up in Kentucky in the 1940’s. He said in an interview that the song stemmed from one of his classmates’ mother going to the school board meeting about her modern views.

Tom had been approached by singer Margie Singleton to write a similar song to Ode To Billie Joe. However Jeannie C. Riley was a secretary for Nashville record label and heard the song first.

Reportedly, Tom had first asked Skeeter Davis to record the song, but she declined.

When the song hit the charts, it cemented Jeannie as a country singer and made her the first woman to top both the country and the pop charts with the same song. Something that wouldn’t happen again until 1981 when Dolly Parton recorded ‘9 to 5’.

The song also has the distinction of having the biggest chart success. Leaping from number 81 to number 7 in just one week selling over 6 million copies.