For more than 50 years, her recording has been a Yuletide standard.
Brenda Lee — Little Miss Dynamite herself — has dashed to the top of the charts once again with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” her enduringly popular Yuletide standard. It hit No. 1 this week on Billboard’s Country Streaming Songs, and the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since 1961.
“It’s amazing how that song continues to resonate with every age group and just about everybody,” Lee said in a prepared statement. “I was just a kid when we recorded ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ and it makes me feel so good knowing it still brings Christmas joy to others.
The Country Music Hall of Famer recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” — written by Johnny Marks (“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “A Holly Jolly Christmas”) — when she was 13 years old. The tune was originally released in 1958.
“I’ll hear some songs,” Lee told us earlier this year at the CMA Music Festival, “and I’ll remember the circumstances of how we recorded it and what time of year we recorded it. Like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” — we did in the heat of July. [Record producer Owen Bradley] had decorated the studio with a Christmas tree and Christmas lights to get us in the mood.”
And all these years later, the song remains a pop culture mainstay.
“My kids are still going to be proud of that when I’m not here any longer,” Lee said. “That’s a blessing. All my songs have been blessings, I suppose. But that one has really been a blessing, because it’s one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time.”
Lee, who celebrated her 71st birthday December 11, is enjoying the holidays at her Nashville home after performing for a packed crowd during the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s “Deck the Hall” concert series.