Singer Brenda Lee has achieved some remarkable feats. Earlier this week, her American Christmas standard “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, more than 65 years after its original release. At 78 years old, Lee is the oldest artist to ever top the Billboard Hot 100. While Lee is likely most known for “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” the artist has quite an impressive resume.
Who is country singer Brenda Lee?
Lee grew up between Augusta and Atlanta, Georgia, where she performed solos on Sundays within the Baptist church, as she notes in her 2002 autobiography Little Miss Dynamite: The Life And Times Of Brenda Lee
In her autobiography, she also shares that she won her school’s talent show performing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” when she was five years old, which led to appearances on local radio and television shows.
She came to mass fame at 11 years old, with her debut single, “Jambalaya.” While she started of as a country singer, she was later marketed as a pop artist. She would release “Rockin’ Around The Christmas in 1958, when she was 13 years old. In 1969, she would make a return to country sounds with her single, “Johnny One Time.”
Lee was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1997 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002.
To her credit, Lee has 29 studio albums, her most recent one, Gospel Duets With Treasured Friends, released in 2007.
Still, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” continues to stand the test of time, as she only released its official music video — starring Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood — last month.
You can see the video for “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” above.
