Christmas Notes: “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree”

From the book “Note di Natale” by Davide Pezzi (with a preface by Arturo Stàlteri) published by VoloLibero we are currently publishing some of the 95 songs covered by the author in the 300 pages of the volume; we tried to choose the least “predictable”.

Johnny Marks – Jewish like paradoxically almost all the most prolific authors of Christmas songs – is what can be defined as a Christmas professional. In his long career he wrote more than twenty songs dedicated to the Christian holiday par excellence, including the well-known “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, sung by the greatest American singers. Yet, in 1958, for his latest creation he chose a decidedly non-famous and very young singer, thirteen-year-old Brenda Mae Tarpley, known as Brenda Lee. The song is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and this is its story.

When Marks writes the song he is no longer a boy (he is already forty-nine years old), and above all he has a very old school background, decidedly far from the new music which in this part of the fifties is revolutionizing the international musical environment.

Marks therefore thinks that it might be a good idea to choose rock as the style for a new Christmas song, and consequently the interpreter will also have to be adequate to the target audience his new creation intends to address. The idea comes to the composer on a beach New York, as he himself said: «Well, I was lying on the beach and I fell asleep. When I woke up the pine trees were swaying in the breeze… Suddenly, I thought of Christmas, they almost seemed to be dancing, so I imagined a “rocking Christmas” and then I thought of it so that people might want to dance around the tree Christmas. And more or less it was born like this.”

To sing the song Marks thinks of the very young Brenda Lee, a child prodigy who had already won a talent competition at her school at the age of five, an event that led her to perform regularly on local radio and television programmes. When her father dies in 1953, Brenda is only eight years old and suddenly finds herself the main source of
livelihood of her family, starting a career as a country singer that led her to sign her first recording contract in 1956, at the age of twelve. Her first hit, “Dynamite”, earned her the nickname Little Miss Dynamite due to her small stature – just over five feet.

The singer herself has often said she had no idea why Marks thought of her to record “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.

«I was only twelve and I hadn’t had much success with records, but for some reason he listened to me and wanted me to do it” – Brenda said years later – “Owen (Bradley, her producer) thought it would be fantastic to make a Christmas song that was really, really good. He really believed it and I loved it. I had to like what I recorded. I wasn’t one of those artists where the producer said, “Well, I think this is good for you. We will do it.” I had to like it otherwise I couldn’t sing it.” Given Marks’ “passion” for Christmas songs, perhaps the fact that the young singer had already recorded a couple of country songs dedicated to Christmas had an influence.

The song was recorded in Nashville, the capital of country music, in October 1958: the probability of it snowing or being cold is practically nil, so when Brenda arrives at the studio she finds the air conditioning on full blast and a large Christmas tree with the lights on. “I thought it was very special. We had a lot of fun” recalled the singer. Despite coming from country music, Brenda immediately adapts to the rockabilly style of the song; as we have seen, rock is the furthest thing from Marks’ style, and moreover in 1958 it is still seen as a passing fad, destined to
last a short time. But obviously you have to strike while the iron is hot, our author must have thought.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was released as a single on November 24, 1958, but failed to enter the charts, and the same happened the following year, when Decca re-released it.

It was only in 1960, after Brenda Lee reached number one on the charts with “I’m Sorry”, that “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” finally made its first appearance on the charts, reaching number 14. “It was magical, and I think we all knew that. It took a few years to take off, but once it did, it really happened” recalls the singer. It entered the charts again in 1961 and 1962, becoming a Christmas classic, reaching third place in the charts in 1965, seven years after its first release.
Recorded like all Christmas classics by many artists, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” experienced new popularity in 1990, thanks to its use in the film “Home Alone” in the original version by Brenda Lee.

Thanks to streaming, the song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 from 2019 to 2021 (in first place every time was “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey). “It has extended my career” – declared the 78-year-old singer in 2022 – “You get to a certain age in this industry and you are no longer as attractive as you once were. Or at least it should be like this… We can’t always be number one. I think when you have that mindset, you’re just grateful to be a part of something you love to do.”

The song made its way to the top of the “Billboard” charts
on December 9, 2023. In doing so, Brenda Lee had three hits from
record:
1.

At age seventy-eight, he claims the title of oldest artist ever to top the chart, surpassing Louis Armstrong, who was sixty-two when “Hello, Dolly!” reached the top of the charts in 1964. Brenda also surpassed Cher’s record as the oldest female artist to hit the top spot: Cher was fifty-two when “Believe” dominated the Hot 100 in March 1999.
2. Sixty-five years after its initial release, the song secures the No. 1 spot, setting a new record for the longest time it took a single to reach No. 1 on the US charts.
3. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” also sets the record for the longest gap between number one singles by an artist: sixty-three years, one month and two weeks since 1960’s “I Want to Be Wanted.”