How One Christmas Song Turned Brenda Lee Into a Household Name

Brenda Lee released plenty of songs throughout her country music career. Lee was only 11 years old when her debut “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” came out in 1956, kicking off a career that would ultimately span 70 years.

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Lee has plenty of hits to her credit, including songs like “I Want To Be Wanted”, “All Alone Am I”, “Losing You”, and more. Although well known, they all pale in comparison to “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, a song that made Lee a household name

First released in 1958, Lee was just 13 when she released “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”. Written by Johnny Marks, the song is on her Merry Christmas From Brenda Lee album. Since then, the song has remained a mainstay on holiday playlists of all genres.

In 2023, Lee finally released a video for “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”. Both Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker appear in the video with Lee. The new video also helped propel “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree ” to the top of the charts.

Brenda Lee Shares the Story Behind “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”

Brenda Lee still recalls hearing “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” for the first time. The song was brought to her by her producer, Owen Bradley. She already knew of Marks, who is the writer of such holiday songs as “Holly Jolly Christmas”, “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and more.

“Owen just thought it’d be great to do a Christmas song that was really, really good,” Lee recalls on Q With Tom Power. “He really believed in that one, and I loved it. I had to like what I recorded. I wasn’t one of those artists that the producer would say, ‘Well, I think this is good for you. We’re going to do this.’ I had to like it, or I couldn’t sing it.”

“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was always a popular song. But it became even more popular, thanks to a popular holiday film.

“I got a phone call, and they said, ‘Brenda, have you seen the movie Home Alone?’ And I said, ‘I have not,’” Lee recalls. “And they said, ‘Well, you need to go see it. Your song is all over it.’ And that’s really where Rockin’ got a big, big boost.

“I didn’t know if the song made $1, $5, $10,” she adds. “I didn’t know. I was just doing what I love to do. And that was to sing.”

Lee’s version of “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is the most popular, but it isn’t the only one. Numerous other artists have also recorded “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, including Kacey Musgraves with Camilla Cabello, Justin Bieber, Cyndi Lauper, Alabama, and others.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns