Still rockin': As a singer turns 80, the Christmas song she sang as a teen is a holiday staple

[December 11, 2024]  By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Her memories of recording “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” are a little hazy. She remembers the producer placing decorations around the studio and blasting the air conditioner on a warm Nashville day to create a holiday spirit. The musicians, she recalls, nailed it in a couple of takes.

That's about it. After all, Brenda Lee was 13 years old at the time — and it was 66 years ago, in 1958.

Somewhat implausibly, her celebration of a “Christmas party hop” is more popular today than ever before. It's an unusual trajectory, even accounting for the fact that music listeners during the holiday season tend to embrace songs they've known for years.

“Rockin'” eclipsed Mariah Carey's perennial favorite “All I Want for Christmas is You” last December to top the Billboard music chart and make Lee, at age 78, the oldest woman to achieve that feat. A week later, following a birthday, she beat her own mark. Kendrick Lamar likely stands in her way of doing it again this year.

Another record: Sixty-five years represented the longest interval between a record being released and making it to No. 1.

“It is a good song,” Lee told The Associated Press. “It's a song that anybody can sing. You can join in, you can sing it, everyone is happy. I sure am glad that I have it. I never thought in my life that a Christmas song would be my legacy. But I'll take it.”

‘An ear worm on steroids’

It's a phenomenon that music journalist Holly Gleason noticed recently while stopping for coffee in Nashville, near the neighborhood where Lee lives. The song came over the loudspeaker and the room — parents, kids, hipsters — erupted in singing and laughter. “It's kind of an ear worm on steroids,” said Gleason, whose 2017 book “Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives” featured Lee, among others.

The song manages the neat trick of sounding retro yet not dated. Sweet guitar licks snake around Lee's voice in the original recording. Boots Randolph's saxophone solo drives it home. The party flies by quickly, the song over in two minutes, six seconds.

Composer Johnny Marks already had some seasonal hits to his credit, including “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas.” He specifically sought out Lee for his new song in 1958 and it's easy to see why: Who better to convey its innocence and spirit than a 13-year-old girl at the forefront of the Baby Boom? Rock ‘n’ roll was in its infancy then, too.

In the song, Lee sings about “mistletoe hung where you can see, every couple tries to stop.”

In real life, she hadn't experienced her first kiss. “Lord, no,” she said. “Not to say I didn't want to. I wasn't even allowed to date until I was 16.”

What is the ‘new old-fashioned way,’ anyway?

The song hits plenty of holiday reference points — pumpkin pie, caroling, boughs of holly. You can overlook the part of the chorus that doesn't make much sense: what is the “new old-fashioned way,” exactly?

This combination of images shows singer Brenda Lee at the 57th Annual CMA Awards on Nov. 8, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn., and Brenda Lee at fourteen, in London on April 5, 1959. (AP Photo)

The simplicity of “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” is a big part of its appeal, said Nathaniel Sloan, a musicologist at the University of Southern California and co-host of the “Switched on Pop” podcast. Like many successful holiday songs, it evokes nostalgia for a happier, more peaceful time — even if that's more imagination than reality, he said.

The style is more rockabilly than traditional rock or country, and Sloan believes that has much to do with why it continues to sound fresh.

“The thing that has always stunned me about the song is that you're listening to a 13-year-old's performance, and it doesn't sound that way to me,” he said. “There's a depth to the vocal, even a weathered quality, that I can't believe she was so young. It's pitch-perfect.”

For all of its success, the song was barely noticed upon its release in 1958. Not until two years later, when Lee's profile was higher through hits like “I'm Sorry,” did it make the music charts. Its biggest boost came 40 years after that, when “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” was featured in the hit movie “Home Alone.” The movie itself has become a holiday staple, giving more exposure to the song each year.

Her record company continues to push the song, recording a video in 2023 that included guest appearances by Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood. This year it has released “Noche Buena Y Navidad,” a Spanish-language version using artificial intelligence to create a vocal derived from Lee's voice.

The record company is throwing Lee a birthday party

Universal Music is holding a party for her in Nashville to celebrate her 80th birthday on Wednesday. “She's just a force and a character,” said Cindy Mabe, the company's chairwoman and CEO. “She's full of spunk in the same way that 13-year-old girl was.”

“Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” made the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2019. It has been streamed more than 2.5 billion times globally and certified seven times Platinum, meaning at least seven million copies sold. Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Meghan Trainor, Kacey Musgraves and the duo of Darlene Love & Ronnie Spector are among the artists who've covered it.

Lee has sung it countless times over the years, most recently at a charity event last year. It made her concert setlist even in the heat of summer. How much money the song has earned is murky; the record company wouldn't talk about it. The bulk of its income would likely go to Marks' estate.

“It has never been a money thing for me,” Lee said. “It’s been a love thing. The money is great, yes, and I’m grateful. But I would be singing it on the corner for pennies because that’s what I love to do.”

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