It’s that time of year again when it’s socially acceptable to play Christmas music on the radio, and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree will no doubt be on repeat.
The legendary Christmas song was first released in 1958, but it only sold 5,000 copies and sadly failed to gain a foothold on the charts.
The tune is certainly a hit, in part due to Brenda’s mature voice and sultry husky voice.
However, Brenda was only 13 years old during filming, a surprising fact that left fans in disbelief as they assumed she was much older.
Sharing a clip of the holiday song on social media, TikTok user Ellie wrote: “Me remembering this is literally a 13 year old singing and not a 60 year old woman.”
-I beg your pardon? commented a bewildered woman.
Another user didn’t quite believe it and wrote: ‘You’re joking.’
While a third said: ‘I was years old today when I found out about this.’
Fans were stunned after discovering Brenda Lee’s real age when she sang Christmas hit Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (pictured on the album cover).
Speaking of the song that has now become a holiday playlist staple, Brenda said in a 2015 interview with the Tennessean, “It was magical, and I think we all knew it” (pictured from that year) .
While some fans of the song struggled to come to terms with what they had learned, others flooded the comments with equally mind-blowing facts.
One wrote: “LeAnn Rimes was 13 when she recorded her song Blue.”
And another pointed out that Judy Garland was only 16 years old when she sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
A year before swinging around the Christmas tree, Brenda scored her first Billboard hit at the age of 12 with One Step at a Time.
Songwriter Johnny Marks, who had previously written Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Holly Jolly Christmas, heard this single and specifically asked Brenda to sing his new song.
Although she was known as Little Miss Dynamite for her powerful voice and 4-foot-9-inch height, the young Brenda was hesitant to hit the track at such a young age.
Fans of the Christmas hit took to the comments on TikTok to share their disbelief.
Sharing a clip of the song on TikTok, Ellie wrote: “I, looking back on this, am literally a 13-year-old singing and not a 60-year-old woman.”
But she also recalled how comfortable producer Owen Bradley made her feel during recording by setting up a Christmas tree and lights in the studio, as well as turning on the air conditioning to mimic a cool winter day even though it was sweltering outside. .
“I thought it was very special,” the singer told the Tennessean.
Two years after the original release of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, Brenda began to make a name for herself and the Christmas song began to take over the American airwaves.
It charted again in 1961 and 1962 before peaking at number three on Billboard’s Christmas Singles chart.
Speaking about the song that has now become a staple on many holiday playlists, Brenda said in a 2015 interview with the Tennessee: ‘It was magical and I think we all knew it.
“It took a few years to take off, but once it did, it really did.”
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee was first released in 1958, but only sold 5,000 copies. Photographed in December 2023.
She was known as Little Miss Dynamite for her powerful voice and 4’9” height.
Since its release, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and is featured in the film Home Alone when Kevin McAlister, played by Macauley Culkin, hosts his own Christmas party.
Brenda herself sold more than 100 million records worldwide and became Billboard’s Top Female Artist of the Decade in the 1960s.
She has a Grammy Award, four NARM Awards, three NME Awards and five Edison Awards to her credit and became the first woman to be inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Roll.
Last year, Rolling Stone named her one of the greatest singers of all time.