On Monday (Dec. 4), Brenda Lee made history when her classic holiday chestnut, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time — 65 years after the song’s release.
Lee, whose indomitable spirit and powerful voice, even as a child, earned her the nickname “Little Miss Dynamite,” recorded “Rockin’” when she was just 13. Now, at age 78, she’s watching as the song, promoted by major label UMG Nashville, has reached the pinnacle of Billboard’s all-genre chart. In the process, the song has become only the third holiday song to reach No. 1 ever on the Hot 100.
I will always like Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" from just a few years earlier.
------------------ "Ain't no rest for the whiskers."
I saw a news story about her and that song- recorded in 1958 at age 13 and now at 78 it topped the chart. Amazing and absolutely terrific- nice to see good music and older gen people being popular.
I remember watching Brenda Lee Tarpley on Farmer Boy John's TV Ranch in Atlanta when she started her TV appearances. That station is now Fox5, Atlanta. Aside from the regulars, they had guests such as Little Jimmy Dickens, Boots Woodall, and other top country artists. They had to put her up on a box so she could reach the microphone. She might have been around 5 or 6 years old at the time. We got our first TV around 1949, and she's almost the same age as me and I was born in 1944.
Because she was a local Atlanta girl, her records were always popular at our school sock hops in Junior and High School.
Back in the mid-90's my wife's employer sponsored her and the Oak Ridge Boys Christmas concert at the Target Center in Minneapolis. As a work perk, we got the tickets in Suite #1. During an intermission, they all came up to our suite to personally thank us for sponsoring their show. We got to shake all of their hands. All were very nice. Brenda looked real old back then.
I figured the thread title would ring a bell with two different generations: those who heard the radio playing that forgotten song and those who heard the radio playing that song. And here I am stuck in the middle.
[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 12-07-2023).]
I figured the thread title would ring a bell with two different generations: those who heard the radio playing that forgotten song and those who heard the radio playing that song. And here I am stuck in the middle.
Even though I was well old enough, I don't remember that forgotten song like I remember lets say "Sunshine Superman" and many others in '66. Now, RL is a different story, it's one of those that made my right foot unbearably heavy. Especially when heading for a potential tryst with my then GF. God it was good to be young back then. One thing I did not realize until much later is that the RL guy dies trying to get there (last car to pass, here I go), according to the songwriters George Kooymans & Barry Hay.
