'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' Singer Brenda Lee Reveals Song's Unlikely Beach-Side Inspiration (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Last ChristmasBrenda Leeset several important chart milestones when her 1958 holiday single"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"hit No. 1 on theBillboardHot 100 chart for the first time. Lee, then 78, became the oldest artist to top the chart, and it also became the single that took the longest time from its initial release to hit No. 1 — 65 years!

Brenda Lee in 1970.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“I recorded ‘Rockin’ ' when I was 12,” she says. “Johnny Marks wrote it. I said, ‘Johnny, you don’t even believe in Christmas,’ and I said, ‘Tell me how you wrote ‘Rockin’?’ "

“He said, ‘I was laying on the beach in New York,’ and pine trees were over to this side.' And then he said, ‘I kind of went to sleep to take a little nap, and I woke up and I was facing the pine trees, and they were just kind of swinging like this [moves her hands back and forth].’ And he thought, ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.' And there it was.”

The song wasn’t an immediate hit, but Lee went on to become the most successful female star of the 1960s, scoring two No. 1 hits, “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted,” in the first year of the decade. That Christmas, Lee’s first as a major superstar, “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” finally made it to the Hot 100, going all the way to No. 14.

Brenda Lee in 2015.Rick Diamond/Getty

Rick Diamond/Getty

But it wasn’t until 30 years later that the song would reemerge as a Christmas standard, beloved my multiple generations. Lee, who is an inductee in both theRock and Roll Hall of Fameand the Country Music Hall of Fame, vividly remembers when it leaped back into our collective Christmas consciousness.

“I got a call on the phone, and they said, ‘Brenda! Brenda! There’s a movie out. It’s calledHome Alone, and your song’s all over it,’ " she recalls in the documentary. “And I said, ‘Which song? What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘Rockin’,' it’s all over it.' Well, it just went from there.”

Brenda Lee in the video for “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree”.Rick Diamond/Getty

It once again became a staple around the holiday season, and in 2019, five years afterBillboardamended its chart rules to allow older releases to re-chart on the Hot 100, “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” went to No. 2. The song repeated its trip to the runner-up position from 2020–2022 before finally topping the chart in 2023.

Last year, Lee made her first-ever music video for “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,” and Tucker and Yearwood joined her for some red-hot holiday fun.

“Brenda Lee is a part of families, and has been part of their life [for] their entire life,” Urban says in the documentary. “And that’s an extraordinary accomplishment with just one song…. There’s certain perennial Christmas songs that stand the test of time, and Brenda’s got one of them.”

Brenda Lee: Rockin' Aroundis streaming now on PBS as part of its American Masters series.

source: people.com