When we look back at our childhoods, there are so many important cultural touchstones of the era. For me, just entering 8th grade, nothing was more ubiquitous than Jeannie C. Riley’s hit “Harper Valley P.T.A.
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.1
Top. That means #1. Nobody else did this until Dolly Parton in 1981 with 9 to 5.1
I’ve known for a long time that my favorite songwriter, Tom T. Hall, wrote the song. He was young, still thinking he was going to a writer, such as a journalist or a novelist.2
Gosh, I love his music–the storytelling, the heart and soul, his bluegrass roots (being from Kentucky y’all).
“Harper Valley P.T.A.” is not on this album. These are many of the songs Tom T Hall recorded.
Hall said that this song ended up being his novel.2
Think of that. He was an amazing observer, like many writers, and what he observed in America showed up in his songs. For instance, in his song “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs,” he captures so well a man who is so tied to his profession (in this case, a hog farmer) and perhaps to denial as well that in the hospital he thinks more about “them hogs” than he does about the fact that doctors think he might not survive.*
Back to the Jeannie C.Riley hit song, written by Hall. Originally it was suggested he write a song reminiscent of the Bobbie Gentry 1967 hit “Ode to Billie Joe.” And that’s how the song sounded when Riley first heard it sung by a demo singer.3
The song became a big hit in part because of Tom T. Hall’s amazing song writing, but finally because Riley added the finishing touch that really moved the song up a level.
If you listen to the song you see that that final line that is repeated twice is what makes you want to jump off your feet, scream, and applaud. It wouldn’t mean anything without Hall’s songwriting, but without Riley’s ending it would have been a fun and thought-provoking song, but not a GINORMOUS international hit.
The song is told in 3rd person. The singer/narrator tells the story of a young single mother who is admonished by the PTA about how she is raising her daughter. “Mrs. Johnson” goes to the PTA meeting and calls the board out as hypocrites. She sums up with my second favorite line of the song: “Well, this is just a little Peyton Place and you’re all Harper Valley hypocrites!“
Side note: Peyton Place was very popular, starting as a novel by Grace Metalious, based on true events, focusing on all the covered up sins, crimes, and vices of a small town–as well as the gossip. Sadly, Metalious died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 39. Look up the Peyton Place “franchise” if you don’t know much about it.
Back to the ending of “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” repeated twice, that is written by Riley.
Originally, the song lyrics stayed in the 3rd person POV, calling Mrs. Johnson “that mama.”3
But Riley moved to the 1st person in that ending, thus surprising the listener with the idea that the teen daughter was the one proudly sharing her mama’s story. She also added a very popular up-to-date touch by using the term “socked it to,” made popular by the TV program Laugh-in. 3 Thus:
The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A.
The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A.
By repeating that last line, the listener has the chance to really absorb that this kid is so proud of her mom for standing up to the hypocrites.
With that ending and the mini skirt Hall wrote into a song based on his own childhood observation (he was born in 1936), the song became emblematic of MY 1960s childhood. This song is an anthem for my generation.
In this way, this song presented an inspiring role model. Can you dig it?
***
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Valley_PTA
2 https://theboot.com/jeannie-c-riley-harper-valley-pta-lyrics/
*Bonus video: “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs”
