Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree • Brenda Lee
Christmas Song of the Day: Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, by Brenda Lee. (Today is Christmas Songs Day 5)
Day 4 (yesterday) was Charlie Brown Christmas, performed by Vince Guaraldi.
Today, Day 5, we travel back to the 1950s. Tonight’s song was released during the Christmas season in 1958. The artist — Brenda Lee, was only 13 when she recorded the song. That’s right! 13 years old. When I was 13, my voice was changing, and I was trying to remember my locker combination in Junior High School! Brenda Lee was launching a music career.
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958; it has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had sold over 25 million copies with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single.
Rolling Stone magazine wrote. “She awed a young Elton John, influenced Taylor Swift and had the Beatles open for her. So why doesn’t Brenda Lee get more respect?”
In the Sixties, she earned more Hot 100 singles in the United States – 46 – than any recording artist besides the Beatles, Elvis or Ray Charles, and she has sold more than 100 million records worldwide throughout her career.
Consider the reflections of several superstars when talking about Brenda Lee:
Elton John — “When I saw her perform, I was just stunned. I don’t think I had ever heard anything like it,” says Elton John, who was a teenager when he first saw Lee play in England. “Brenda Lee is in the top three female rock & roll singers of all time: her, Janis Joplin and Tina Turner.”
John Lennon — called Brenda Lee “the greatest rock & roll voice of them all.”
Dolly Parton — “Brenda is one of the greatest entertainers ever,” says Dolly Parton, who’s collaborated with Lee over the years and remains a close friend. “But I think I like her mostly because she’s the only person I know that I’m taller than.”
In 1962, during a show in Hamburg, Germany, Lee was taken aback by a group of rowdy teenagers from Liverpool who were serving as her opening act. After watching their set, she approached one of them after the show. “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Lee asked one of the young men, “where do you get those songs?”
“Oh,” replied John Lennon. “We write them.” Lee and Lennon became fast friends during their Star Club residency. “I hung out with John,” she says. “He was extremely intelligent, very acerbic with his jokes, just a gentle person. When I found out that they later said they were fans of my music, I was just floored.”
At 4'9", Brenda Lee might be one of music's most diminutive legends, but her list of accomplishments and accolades is towering. Nicknamed "Little Miss Dynamite" after releasing a single called "Dynamite" in 1957, the young spitfire with the powerful voice found success in both pop and country music. At 12, she cut her first record. Songs like "I'm Sorry," "All Alone Am I" and "Break It to Me Gently" made her one of the most popular artists of the 1960s at home and abroad. She has performed for Queen Elizabeth II and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In a Rolling Stone interview, Jonathan Bernstein describes Her, “Brenda Lee is sitting inside her spacious Nashville home, sipping a glass of sweet tea and staring at dead friends. She shows off an autographed portrait of the Beatles from when the group opened for her at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962, then points to a wall, where a photo of a 12-year-old Lee dancing with Elvis hangs next to a framed gold necklace he gave her.
Brenda Lee & Elvis Presley
Next, she brings out a commemorative brass coffer the King of England gave to Judy Garland, Lee’s childhood idol and, later, her mentor. Was it a gift from Garland? “I wish,” she says, smirking. “I bid on that.”
Despite being one of the most successful American pop singers of the 20th century, Lee still looks up to her contemporaries as if she were an adoring fan. “I’m an autograph hound,” she admits. At the moment, she’s particularly proud of a Fats Domino signature she received shortly before his death.
Many of us older folks grew up with Brenda Lee, and others from that era. These songs have come to be a part of the fabric of the Christmas season. I hope you’ll add these also to your Playlist for Christmas this year. It will warm your soul.
Enjoy listening to Brenda Lee below.
Here are some favorite tracks from Spotify, as well as classic videos:
Join us tomorrow for Christmas Songs Day 6.
Here is Brenda Lee on Spotify:
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Classic Brenda Lee (Greatest Hits)
A selection of videos for you:
Here is Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree performed by older Brenda Lee
Here is Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree performed by young Brenda Lee (sorry this video is a little fuzzy/grainy, and also puts in some labels in Spanish). But it’s 13 year old Brenda. Amazing!
Here is a great, rockin’ cover of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree performed by a teen group that I know nothing about called “First to Eleven.” Just fun to listen to...
