Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

 

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee 

 

Lee achieved her first Billboard hit aged 12 in 1957 and was given the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". 

1957년 12세에 첫 빌보드 히트 달성 , '작은 다이나마이트 소녀' 별명 얻다.

 

 

-1958년 13세에 Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree 취입

 

- 최근 4년간(2019~2022) 'Hot100' 2위

2023년 12월 첫 주 "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"   'Hot100'  정상

 

-2023년 11월말,  발매 65년 만에  처음으로 곡의 뮤직비디오를 새로 제작

-2023년 11월 마지막 주 'Hot 100'에 8위로 재진입한 후  한 주 만인  2023년 12월 첫 주에 정상

-발매 이후 'Hot 100'  1위에 오르기까지  65년으로 시간이 가장 오래 걸린 노래로 기록

2023년 78세인 리는 이 곡으로 역대 최고령의 나이로 'Hot 100' 1위를 기록한 가수(78세)

 

Lee 는 11월   미국 일간 뉴욕타임스(NYT)와 인터뷰에서

"이 곡이 내 대표곡이 될 줄은 꿈에도 상상하지 못했다"

"내가 활동하던 때보다 지금 더 많은 돈을 벌고 있는 것 같다"고...

 

 

 

Lee는 

1960년 10월 24일로 끝나는 주에 "I Want to Be Wanted" 가 1위한 후

63년 1개월 2주만에

2023년 12월 첫 주 "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"가 정상에 올라

빌보드 Hot100 챠트 1위  싱글 사이의  최장 공백 기록을 세웠다. 

 

 

Brenda Lee Over the Years

Brenda Lee, the 12-year-old native of Nashville who earns $100,000 a year off of hit Decca records, sang five tunes before 7,500 at The Nashville Tennessean's third Centennial Park concert of the season June 8, 1958.

Bill Preston / The Tennessean, Bill Preston / The Tennessean

 

 

Brenda Lee 

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958.

 

Original recording by Brenda Lee

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was written by Johnny Marks, who had previously penned "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas".  In spite of her adult voice, Lee recorded the song when she was only 13 years old.  In a 2019 interview with The Tennessean, Lee recalled that she had no knowledge as to why Marks wanted her specifically to sing it: "I was only 12 [sic], and I had not had a lot of success in records, but for some reason he heard me and wanted me to do it. And I did."

 

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a rockabilly song.  The recording features Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Boots Randolph on tenor saxophone, Bob Moore on double bass, and veteran session player Buddy Harman on drums.   The song is written in the key of A-flat major.

 

Billboard advertisement, November 21 1960

 

On November 3, 2023, Lee released a music video for the song, consisting of the 78-year-old Lee lip synching to the original recording of her 13-year-old voice at a party that includes Trisha Yearwood and fellow former teenage country music star Tanya Tucker.

 

 

Lee set a new record for the longest break between number-one singles on the Hot 100 chart: 63 years, one month, and two weeks between "I Want to Be Wanted" making No. 1 on the week ending October 24, 1960, and the ascent of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to the top.

 

On the week ending January 5, 2023, the song reached No. 4, peaking two places higher than its original release 61 years prior.

 

YearChart debut/re-entrydatePeak chartpositionRef.

1960	December 12	14	[14]
1961	December 11	50	[15]
1962	December 15	59	[16]
2014	January 4	50	[17]
2015	December 26	30	[18]
2016	December 24	27	[19]
2017	December 23	30	[20]
2018	December 8	9	[21]
2019	December 7	2	[22]
2020	November 28	2	[23]
2021	December 4	2	[24]
2022	November 26	2	[25]
2023	December 2	1	[26]

 

Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (Official Music Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFsZy9t-qDc

 

 

Nov 4, 2023 #51 top music video

Brenda Lee "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" official music video. Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee is celebrating her signature song, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” on the 65th Anniversary of the holiday classic with a new music video featuring cameos by country stars Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood.

 

Brenda Lee Performs "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" | Christmas at the Opry | NBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlH_x78usOQ

 

 

Dec 8, 2023

Brenda Lee performs her iconic holiday song! Make sure to watch Christmas at the Opry again on December 20 at 9/8c on NBC and streaming on Peacock.

 

Brenda Lee – Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree Lyrics

 

[Verse]
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
At the Christmas party hop
Mistletoe hung where you can see
Every couple tries to stop
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
Let the Christmas spirit ring
Later, we'll have some pumpkin pie
And we'll do some caroling

[Pre-Chorus]
You will get a sentimental feeling
When you hear
Voices singing, "Let's be jolly
Deck the halls with boughs of holly"

[Chorus]
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
Have a happy holiday
Everyone's dancin' merrily
In the new old-fashioned way

[Saxophone Solo]

[Pre-Chorus]
You will get a sentimental feeling
When you hear
Voices singing, "Let's be jolly
Deck the halls with boughs of holly"

 

 

Brenda Mae Tarpley

 stage name Brenda Lee,

Lee in 1965

 

Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944),  known professionally by the stage name Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country and Christmas music, she achieved her first Billboard hit aged 12 in 1957 and was given the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". Some of Lee's most successful songs include "Sweet Nothin's", "I'm Sorry", "I Want to Be Wanted", "Speak to Me Pretty", "All Alone Am I" and "Losing You". Her festive song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", recorded in 1958, topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the chart and breaking several chart records.

 

Having sold over 100 million records globally, Lee is one of the most successful American artists of the 20th century. Her U.S. success in the 1960s earned her recognition as Billboard's Top Female Artist of the Decade and one of the four artists who charted the most singles, behind Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Ray Charles.

 

Brenda_Lee_-_Cash_Box_1960

 

 

She is the first woman to be inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2023, she was named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest singers of all time.

 

Early life and education

Brenda Mae Tarpley was born on December 11, 1944,  in the charity ward of Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents Annie Grayce (née Yarbrough; 1921–2006) and Ruben Lindsey Tarpley (1909–1953).  She weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces at birth. Lee attended grade schools wherever her father found work, primarily between Atlanta and Augusta. Her family was poor. As a child, she shared a bed with her brother and sister in a series of three-room houses without running water. Life centered on her parents finding work, their family, and the Baptist church, where she began singing solos every Sunday.

 

Lee's father was a farmer's son in Georgia's red-clay belt.[8] Standing 5 ft 7 inches (170 cm), he was an excellent left-handed pitcher and played baseball while serving for 11 years in the United States Army. Her mother came from a working class family in Greene County, Georgia.

 

 

Though her family did not have indoor plumbing until after her father's death, they had a battery-powered table radio that fascinated Brenda as a baby.  Both her mother and sister remembered taking her repeatedly to a local candy store before she turned three. One of them would stand her on the counter and she would earn candy or coins for singing.

 

Personal life

Lee met Charles Ronald "Ronnie" Shacklett in November 1962, at a concert by Bo Diddley and Jackie Wilson hosted at Nashville's Fairgrounds Coliseum. They married less than six months later, on April 24, 1963.  Lee and Shacklett have two daughters, Jolie and Julie (named after Patsy Cline's daughter), and three grandchildren, Taylor, Jordan and Charley.

 

Lee is the cousin-by-marriage (by way of her mother's second marriage) to singer Dave Rainwater from The New Christy Minstrels.

 

Brenda Lee Over the Years

Brenda Lee, the 12-year-old native of Nashville who earns $100,000 a year off of hit Decca records, sang five tunes before 7,500 at The Nashville Tennessean's third Centennial Park concert of the season June 8, 1958.

Bill Preston / The Tennessean, Bill Preston / The Tennessean