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.