Harper Valley PTA - The Song's Story

The Song's Story

The song tells the story of Mrs. Johnson, a widowed mother of a teenage girl, who becomes outraged when one afternoon her daughter brings home a note from her school's PTA decrying Mrs. Johnson's supposedly scandalous behavior by small-town standards, which, according to the PTA, is setting a bad example for her daughter. In retaliation, Mrs. Johnson decides to attend the next PTA meeting (which, coincidentally, was being held that very evening), where (wearing a miniskirt, to the horror of the PTA members) she exposes various episodes of misbehavior on the part of several members of the PTA establishment, concluding with, "This is just a little Peyton Place / And you're all Harper Valley hypocrites." In the final line of the song the singer reveals herself as Mrs. Johnson's daughter, with the memorable line: "The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA", referring to the popular phrase of that period "sock it to me" from the sketch comedy TV series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. According to Riley's autobiography, this line was ad libbed at the recording session at the suggestion of someone at the session.