Thursday, September 8, 2022

Jeannie C. Riley - Discography

Jeannie C. Riley



Few artists in the history of country music became famous as fast as Jeannie C. Riley. Her second single, "Harper Valley P.T.A.," was a runaway hit immediately upon release in 1968; it sold over five million copies in the United States and was the first song by a female artist to top the country and pop charts at the same time. The song also set the template for much of Riley's career to follow, singing songs about the harder side of life and small-town scandal, as seen through the eyes of a down-to-earth woman with a proud spirit and a strong voice -- buoyed by the unapologetic Texas twang of her instrument. The accessible but unabashed country sound of Riley's music took on a softer tone after she embraced Christianity in the late '70s and released albums like 1979's Wings to Fly and 1981's From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top. By the '90s, Riley's recording career had faded out and a struggle with depression kept her out of the public eye for most of the decade, but she made a low-key comeback in the early 2000s, hosting a radio show and returning to live performing.

Jeannie C. Riley was born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson on October 19, 1945 in the small Texas town of Stamford. Her father made his living as a mechanic and her mother had a career of her own as a nurse. Growing up in Texas, Riley grew to love music, and dreamed that her talent could be the key to a better way of life. Riley made her public debut as a singer in the early '60s at a performance hosted by her uncle Johnny Moore, a country singer who had scored a few regional hits. Local country fans were impressed with Riley's performance, and she began singing regularly at Moore's monthly jamborees. She had yet to graduate from high school when she married her boyfriend, Mickey Riley, in December 1962, and they welcomed a daughter, Kim Michelle Riley, in January 1966. Meanwhile, Weldon Myrick, a pedal steel guitarist who had played at several of Riley's jamboree shows in Texas, had relocated to Nashville and felt that rising star Connie Smith sounded a great deal like her. Myrick encouraged Riley to come to Nashville and pursue a career as a singer, and in time Riley and Mickey packed their bags and moved to Music City. She worked as a secretary at Passkey Records while cutting demos in her spare time and eventually struck a deal with Little Darlin' Records, a Nashville label co-founded by Johnny Paycheck. In 1967, Little Darlin' issued her debut single, "You Write the Music" b/w "What About Them." Riley would cut an album's worth of material for Little Darlin' but after her first 45 flopped, they declined to release a second single.


9 comments:

wkc said...

I have tried to open folder 1977 From Nashville with Love a couple of times. The folder shows enough mb to hold all the files but only the artwork is visible. Do you know how to show the music files, not able to play currently, tried googling a solution but their suggestions did not work. Tried downloading the lp a couple of times but the same problem occurs. All other lps worked fine. Any help would be appreciated. (using a mac) Thanks for your time and efforts to share.

Ozzieguy said...

Hello wkc
I just downloaded it and it works fine.
You may be just clicking on the Tracklist link.

wkc said...

@Ozzieguy
Thank you for the response and trying to help. The lp downloads just fine (not clicking on tracklist). When I unzip the file it shows that there is 69.8 MB of data in it but only the artwork file shows, no music files appear so I am unable to play anything. Any other suggestions are appreciated. I have download many of the lps from this site and all are just fine, it is just the lp 1977 "From Nashville With Love" that is acting this way. Not sure why.

Ozzieguy said...

I just looked at it once again and there are 10 songs in the ZIP

.01. We're Pioneers.mp3
.02. The Street Singer.mp3
.03. Most People Get Married.mp3
.04. Macon Georgia Bad Girl.mp3
.05. To the Other Woman.mp3
.06. I Didn't Mean to Care.mp3
.07. If I Could.mp3
.08. Are You Lonesome Like Me.mp3
.09. Wonderful.mp3
.10. Hold Me.mp3

Doc Fix said...

Hi Aussieguy, thank you for all your shares. All JCR albums are awesome. And I'm loving the "Tracklist" links.

Ozzieguy said...

Hello Doc Fix.
Am glad that you like the music plus the extra links.

wkc said...

I finally was able to discover how to unhide the files in the lp folder referenced above. Played just fine. Thanks for sharing

Ozzieguy said...

Very welcome wkc.

alanmking said...

Many thanks for sharing Jeannie C. Riley with us
Cheers Alan