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The first in Bear Family Records'® new series of hard-hitting country music from artists who travelled the Honky Tonk Highway in the 1960s and '70s.

This CD displays the full range of the astonishing recordings Jeannie C. Riley made for Plantation Records between 1968 and 1971, a time when her songs told the truth and shamed the devil.

Jeannie had 24 country hits and 6 pop hits, including her international smash Harper Valley P.T. A. - the only song by a female country singer to top both the country and pop charts until Dolly Parton went pop 13 years later. She also had 9 charted albums.

Jeannie was an excellent singer, the real deal, whose authentic Texas honky tonk twang came together with an ability to put across a song to wider audience.

Standout songs from the finest country writers include Tell The Truth, The Girl Most Likely, The Back Side Of Dallas, Oh Singer, Country Girl, Roses And Thorns, The Street Singer, In A Moment Of Weakness, and ... Harper Valley P.T.A.

The accompanying booklet by Martin Hawkins tells the fascinating story of young Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson complete with original interviews and rare photographs.

Jeannie C. Riley was born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson in 1945 in Stamford, Texas. Her childhood was lonely but competitive, and focused on singing - at first into her hairbrush, then on the local Jones County Jamboree.

She moved to Nashville in 1966 with her husband and a six month old daughter, Kim. She was turned down by Monument and Capitol and messed around by undelivered promises from other labels. Her 1981 autobiography called out the casting couch processes in Nashville years before "Me Too" came along. Johnny Cash wrote the introduction: "She was a diamond in the rough... Her story is a textbook example of what many girls have come through in order to 'make it' in the Nashville music community."

Track Listing