Lee, Brenda (1944-…), is an American singer. Lee is known for powerful and emotional vocal performances. She has recorded songs in several styles, including country, pop, rock, and rockabilly. Rockabilly is a musical style that combines country music with rock and rhythm and blues. Lee’s most enduring hit is her recording of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (1958), a rockabilly Christmas song written by the American songwriter Johnny Marks. After decades of popularity, Lee’s recording reached number one on the Billboard “Hot 100” music chart in 2023. 
Lee recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958, when she was 13 years old. It was released that year by Decca Records. The song reached number 14 on the “Hot 100” chart in 1960. It again gained popularity in 1990, when it was featured in the motion picture Home Alone.
In 2018, Billboard altered the formulas of its “Hot 100” song chart and “Billboard 200” album chart to better represent plays on such music streaming services as Spotify. These changes caused several popular Christmas songs to reach the top of the “Hot 100” each holiday season. Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” trailed only Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on the “Hot 100” during the holiday seasons of 2019 to 2022.
In November 2023, to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the recording, Lee filmed a music video lip-syncing to her original vocals. Lip-sync is a style of performance in which people move their lips in time to recorded music. The video became popular on the video-sharing services TikTok and YouTube. On December 4, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” reached number one on the “Hot 100.” It was Lee’s first number-one song since 1960. At 78, she became the oldest artist to have a number-one “Hot 100” single. Lee surpassed the American jazz singer and musician Louis Armstrong, who was 62 when his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” reached number one in 1964.
Brenda Mae Tarpley was born on Dec. 11, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia. She grew up in the nearby towns of Conyers and Lithonia and the city of Augusta. Tarpley began singing at age 4 and became a child star in the South. She entertained and amazed audiences with her powerful, mature-sounding voice. During this time, promoters gave her the stage name Brenda Lee. One of her first hits, “Dynamite” (1957), inspired her nickname, Little Miss Dynamite. Lee scored two number-one “Hot 100” singles in 1960: “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted.” She toured internationally during this time, helping to build a worldwide following. The band the Beatles, whose members admired her singing, opened for Lee during a 1962 concert in Hamburg, Germany.
Lee continued to record popular country singles into the 1970’s. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1997 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2002.
