Brenda Mae Tarpley isn’t a name most people know, but by golly, most everyone has heard the song she introduced in 1958 when she was only 13 years old. Scroll down to hear it:
We know this singer better as Brenda Lee, and the song surprised listeners at the time for the adult voice coming out of this young lady’s mouth. A younger demographic didn’t much care who sang it because “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was a terrific song. A fusion of country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, the genre was known as “rockabilly,” and was hugely popular with the same listeners who were fans of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Despite its popularity at the time, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” only got as high as No. 3 on Billboard‘s Christmas Singles chart in December, 1965. Twenty-five years later, the song experienced a resurgence in popularity after the hit movie, Home Alone, used it in 1990, but then it fell back to “oldie but a goodie” status insofar as chart ranking went.
Until now.
Brenda Lee made history this month (12/2023) when sixty-five years after it was first released, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” topped Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. It made Brenda Lee, now 78, one of the oldest artists to ever top the chart. Here is her present-day-self singing the song (lip synching, we’re guessing):
Always a dog person, Brenda Lee made the newspapers on December 31, 1962 for the wrong reason: Then 18 years old, she and six members of her family escaped their tri-level house in Nashville, Tennessee when it was engulfed, and consequently gutted, by fire. Brenda had to be restrained by her family as she fought to reenter the house to rescue one of four Poodles she owned at the time, “Cee Cee.” Tragically, the little Poodle, who had traveled the globe with Brenda, perished in the blaze from smoke inhalation. In trying to save Cee Cee, Lee’s hair was singed and one of her eyes sustained injury. The other three Poodles survived the fire thought to be caused by faulty wiring, but she was inconsolable over Cee Cee.
The Poodles passed away over the years, and the next account we have of a dog owned by Brenda Lee is one named “Buddy.”After Buddy passed away, Lee told her family she would never get another dog to replace him.
Billboard ad for “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” from November 21, 1960 put out by Decca. It appears via the public domain
Famous last words.
When her husband encountered a puppy sitting in the middle of the Tennessee interstate where it appeared to have been abandoned, he brought the bedraggled pup home. Ugly, malnourished and long-legged, Brenda thought, “Oh, you poor, little baby.” She intended to nurse the puppy back to health, then, when the pup was fit and robust, give her to someone else.
Famous last intentions. The puppy wedged her way into Brenda Lee’s heart, got a name and a home. “Little Girl” is now going on 4 years old, and nearly big enough to put her paws on Lee’s shoulders. Lee has said, “I love dogs. They don’t ask a lot from you, they’re very loyal (and) they don’t care how you look. If you’re just kind to them and good to them, then they more than reciprocate. I just like that feeling.”
And that makes us all have something in common with Brenda Lee.
If it’s true that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, Brenda Lee rightfully claims her place among those those who helped to shape Rock and Roll. The 1950s changed music forever, thanks to the likes of her, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley. Lee went on to have other hits: “I’m Sorry,” and one of our favorites, “Sweet Nothings:”
Top image generated by Dall-e because we don’t have a photo of an actual Poodle dancing around a Christmas tree, and don’t have consent to use photos of Brenda Lee with her Poodles.