Brenda Lee’s Still Got It More Than 60 Years After Release Of Holiday Hit ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’

Dec 20, 2022 by apost team

Brenda Lee sure has staying power. The petite singer first shot to fame even before hitting her teens, gaining widespread attention for her vocal talents and winning local competitions until she became her family’s primary breadwinner by the time she had turned 10 years old. She caught the attention of country singer Red Foley, who put her on his popular show “Ozark Jubilee.” That appearance earned her the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite," which she kept for the rest of her life.

While the Atlanta-born Lee would go on to dominate the pop charts in the 50s and 60s with hits like “I’m Sorry,” “Cry,” "Losing You," "Is It True" and "Coming on Strong," and become the top-selling female vocalist of those decades, her start at a young age took the country by storm. At the time, Lee didn't just look like a little girl; she was a little girl. Lee was just a child when she started belting out hits. Her husky growl and knowing lyrics belonged to an older, wiser woman who had seen a lot of life, but that voice was coming from the tiny body of a teen girl.

One television appearance from the 1950s shows Lee performing her hit “Rock the Bop.” The video revealed an incredibly polished, mature-sounding Lee. The soulful, bluesy song required Lee to rasp and growl, and she delivered with no problem. These days, we're used to seeing young performers on reality shows. In Lee's day, however, there were no reality competitions for young performers. Lee was competing with grown women in a tough industry. Not only did she succeed in doing that, but she has remained in people’s hearts to this day, particularly because of her beloved Christmas hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”  

Lee peaked in the 1960s, with audiences lapping up her rockabilly, pop and country music style. She had 37 hits ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that decade, an incredible feat surpassed only by superstars Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Connie Francis and Ray Charles. Some of her most memorable songs of that era included “Jambalaya,” “All Alone I Am,” “Emotions,” and “As Usual,” while her record-breaking nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from 1960 to 1962 for a female solo artist was not equaled until Madonna in 1986. 

While she established herself as a pop music darling in the 1960s, she spent the better part of the 1970s returning to her country music roots with hits such as “Nobody Wins,” “Wrong Ideas,” “Big Four Poster Bed,” and “He’s My Rock.” 

Lee’s list of accomplishments in music has seen her recognized by top institutions in the industry. In 1986, she was inducted into the Atlanta Music Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and in 2002, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it was her Christmas song “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” for which Lee is most recognized, and to mark its 50 years as a holiday standard, Lee earned a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2009. Written by Johnny Marks and released in 1958 when Lee was only 13 years old, the song didn’t initially chart very well, but as time went on, it’s hard to remember a single Christmas without the song being played on the airwaves.

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More than six decades on, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” remains a holiday favorite and regularly makes the charts every time the season rolls around. Sixty-one years after its release, it hit an all-time high of No. 2 on the Billboard charts. In 2022, it again rose to the top, hitting No.3 behind Adele’s “Easy on Me” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Lee, now 78, told The Post third wasn’t a bad place to be, saying “If I’ve got to be behind anybody, that’s pretty good company.” 

She added when she first heard the song, it was love at first chord. “I really loved it because, unlike the (traditional) carols, it was a rocking kind of a song. I just had a ball doing it. It took us probably two takes. It was in the summer, and (producer) Owen (Bradley) had it all decorated up like Christmas, and it was just precious,” she added to the publication.

Lee also told Hellenic News how proud she was to have made history with the rockabilly song. “One of the hardest things to do in the industry is to get a standard Christmas song,” she said. “I have been blessed enough to have one. We recorded it first in 1958 and it didn’t really become a hit until the Christmas of 1960. The original recording has been released every year since then.” 

As for whether she’s ever gotten sick of hearing her hit over the years, Lee said no, adding it’s still a family staple at home, too.

“I’m retired now. But we sing it at Christmas (family gatherings.) People will say, ‘Come on, sing a little bit of ‘Rockin’.’ And I go caroling, believe it or not. I love to carol every year,” she said.

Is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” a Christmas favorite for you? What other Brenda Lee songs are on your playlist? Let us know, and remember to pass this along to friends and family as well.