Last Christmas Brenda Lee set several major milestones on the charts when her 1958 holiday single “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” hit #1 on the charts Billboard Top 100 charts for the first time. Lee, who was 78 years old at the time, became the oldest artist to top the chart, and also became the single that took the longest time from first release to number one — 65 years!
Brenda Lee in 1970.
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This Christmas, Lee, now 80, celebrates her perennial holiday hit with the new PBS documentary American Masters, Brenda Lee: Still Rockin’. The 51-minute special features Keith Urban, Pat Benatar, Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood and Lee herself, who recalls the creation of the song that has become her signature.
“I recorded ‘Rockin’ ‘ when I was 12,” she says. “Johnny Marks wrote it. I said, ‘Johnny, you don’t even believe in Christmas,’ and I said, ‘Tell me how you wrote ‘Rockin’?’ ”
Brenda Lee Reflects on Her Record No. 1 Hit ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ (Exclusive)
“He said, ‘I was lying on the beach in New York,’ and the pine trees were on this side.’ And then he said, ‘I kind of fell asleep to take a little nap, and I woke up and I was facing the pine trees, and they were just swaying like this [moves her hands back and forth].’ And he thought, ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.’ And there it was.”
The song wasn’t an immediate hit, but Lee became the most successful female star of the 1960s, scoring two No. 1 hits, “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted,” in the first year. decades. That Christmas, Lee’s first major superstar hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” finally made it onto the Hot 100, peaking all the way to #14.
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Brenda Lee 2015
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But it wasn’t until 30 years later that the song would re-emerge as a Christmas standard, loved by all my generation. Lee, who has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, vividly remembers when it jumped back into our collective Christmas consciousness.
“I got a call on the phone and they said, ‘Brenda! Brenda! There’s a movie coming out. It’s called Alone in the houseand your song is everywhere,'” she recalls in the documentary. “And I said, ‘What song? What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘Rockin’,’ it’s all over.’ Well, it just went from there.”
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Brenda Lee in the music video for the song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.
Rick Diamond/Getty
It became a staple again during the holiday season and in 2019, five years later Billboard changed its chart rules to allow older releases to re-enter the Hot 100, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” went to No. 2. The song repeated its way to the number two position from 2020 to 2022 before finally topping the chart in 2023.
Last year, Lee shot her first music video for “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and Tucker and Yearwood joined her for some hot holiday fun.
“Brenda Lee is part of the family and was part of their lives [for] their entire lives,” Urban says in the documentary. “And that’s a remarkable achievement with just one song…. There are certain timeless Christmas songs that stand the test of time, and Brenda has one of them.”
Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around now airing on PBS as part of the American Masters series.
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Source: HIS Education