Background and career
Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944) known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Known for her musical versatility, she had commercial success with recordings in the genres of pop, country, rock and roll and gospel. She was also one of the best-selling music artists of the 1960s. Her Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 2023 after a music video was released for the song, making Lee the oldest artist ever to reach number 1. She has been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lee was considered a child prodigy for her ability to sing from a young age. After making appearances on 1950s television programs, she signed a recording contract with Decca Records (later named MCA) at age 11. Her earliest recordings were rock and roll, first achieving a commercial breakthrough with "Sweet Nothin's" (1959). Her music shifted towards pop after reaching number 1 with "I'm Sorry" (1960). That year, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was re-released and became a commercial success for the first time. This new style appealed to teens and adults. Lee had a series of Top 10 hits in multiple countries including "Fool No. 1" (1961), "Break It to Me Gently" (1961), "All Alone Am I" (1962) and "Losing You" (1963). Her single "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" (1965), recorded in Japanese reached the Top 10 in Japan. Lee then experimented with different musical styles, including an album of New Orleans music titled For the First Time (1968) and a soul-inspired project titled Memphis Portrait (1970). After several personal challenges, Lee was reinvented as a country music artist in adulthood. This began with the country song "Nobody Wins" (1973). She then reached the Top 10 with "Sunday Sunrise" (1973), "Big Four Poster Bed" (1974) and "Rock on Baby" (1974). L. A. Sessions (1976), a pop album, did poorly and Lee reverted back to the country genre again with "Tell Me What It's Like" (1979), which reached the Top 10. She had two more Top 10 country songs through 1981 and recorded country-flavored albums until leaving MCA in 1986. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" received another revival when it was featured in the film Home Alone (1990). Warner Bros. signed Lee to a new contract and released Brenda Lee (1991), which failed to become a commercial success. It was followed by A Brenda Lee Christmas: In the New Old Fashioned Way (1991). Lee recorded and performed with less frequency during the 1990s and 2000s. Among her new material was a collection of gospel material titled Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends (2007). In 2023, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" topped the US charts after Lee issued a music video to promote the track.
Brenda Mae Tarpley was born on December 11, 1944, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the second of four children born to Annie Grayce Yarbrough and Ruben Lindsey Tarpley. Her father served in the United States Army for 11 years and then worked various labor jobs, including carpentry, factory work, and construction. Her mother also found factory work in cotton mills. When Tarpley was born, she was one month premature and weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces (2.1 kg). She was given the name Brenda by her mother and was nicknamed "Bootie Mae" by her father. The family rented various three-room houses around the Metro Atlanta area while Ruben worked as a carpenter and survived on roughly $20 per week. After Ruben broke his arm in 1951, he was temporarily unemployed and the family lived on a tenant farm in Conyers, Georgia. Tarpley attended Conyers Elementary School in 1951. After Ruben's recovery, the family moved to a clapboard house in Lithonia, Georgia, where Tarpley slept on one bed with her siblings. Most of her childhood toys were made by her father and her grandmother made many of her dresses. Tarpley began singing along to the radio as early as eight months old and won her first talent contest at age five singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". She then entered a talent contest at Conyers Elementary School where she sang "Too Young" and "Slow Poke", but ultimately lost to an 18-month-old. She continued entering talent shows singing songs by Hank Williams and Peggy Lee. In 1952, she began performing with the Wranglers at the Sports Arena venue in Atlanta. She also performed on local television in Atlanta on TV Ranch, singing "Hey, Good Lookin'" by Hank Williams at seven years old. In 1953, Tarpley's father was working a construction job when a hammer fell off a scaffold and struck him on the head. Knocked unconscious, he was brought to a hospital, where doctors performed brain surgery. He died shortly afterward and the family was left "penniless", leaving Tarpley to help provide for the family through her singing gigs. Without a car, they traveled by bus from Lithonia to Atlanta on a weekly basis so Tarpley could perform. A local television producer during this time suggested a stage name because "Brenda Tarpley" was hard to remember. Soon she adopted the stage name "Brenda Lee". Her mother then remarried and her family briefly moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Augusta, Georgia. In Augusta, she attended North Augusta Elementary School and junior high school. Her stepfather became her manager in 1955 and booked shows around the Atlanta area.
Lee's breakthrough came in February 1955, when she turned down $30 to appear on a Georgia radio station to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV program Ozark Jubilee in Augusta. An Augusta disc jockey persuaded Foley to hear her sing before the show. Foley did and agreed to let her perform "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" on stage that night. At age 11, Foley signed her as a regular cast member of the Ozark Jubilee in 1956. Lee and her mother then traveled by bus to Springfield, Missouri, where she made her debut on the program, singing "Jambalaya" by Hank Williams. Lee's new manager, Lou Black, and her stepfather attempted to get her a recording contract, but were turned down by every label. According to Lee, many companies were hesitant about signing a child performer. Foley then coaxed his Nashville record label to watch Lee perform. Lee was signed by his company, Decca Records, in May 1956. Despite being 11 years old, Decca issued her debut single, "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", under the name "Little Brenda Lee (9 Years Old)". Decca's second single also featured Lee billed under that name. Both the A-side and B-side were novelty Christmas tunes: "I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus" and "Christy Christmas". Her initial releases identified Lee with the rock and roll market. During this time, her Ozark Jubilee performances were seen by New York columnist Jack O'Brien, who wrote an article about her. That led to Lee being booked on The Perry Como Show, The Steve Allen Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. After a performance at the Nashville Disc Jockey Convention, Lou Black died of a heart attack. She was connected to Dub Albritten, who became her personal manager the same year and remained in that position for many years. Among the first gigs Albritten booked for Lee was at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in December 1956. Lee then went to New York City to record her third Decca release with producer Milt Gabler, "One Step at a Time". Released in 1957, it became her first US charting single, rising to number 43 on the Hot 100 and number 15 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Its followup, "Dynamite", rose to number 72 on the US Hot 100 and gave her the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". Lee also credited Steve Allen for the nickname after he said it on the air in 1956. Lee then was booked for a series of rock and roll package tours in 1957, in which she performed alongside Ricky Nelson, Bill Haley & His Comets, George Hamilton IV, and Patsy Cline (who became a good friend). In 1958, Lee's production was taken over by Owen Bradley, who served in the role over the next 10 years. The same year and at age 13, she recorded a new Christmas tune called "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", which eventually became a Top 40 US single in 1960.
Despite Lee's popularity with teen audiences through rock and roll, Albritten believed the music was a "fad" and morphed her style toward pop. He brought Lee to France in 1959 after noticing her records' popularity there, and billed her with French pop performer Gilbert Becaud. According to Lee, Albritten tried to generate hype about her visit by telling French press that she was a "32-year-old midget". Despite the unwarranted press, Lee recalled her French shows as a success with audiences. The same year, Lee's recording of "Let's Jump the Broomstick" reached the Top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. She returned to Nashville that summer to record the rock and roll tune "Sweet Nothin's" with Owen Bradley. The song became her first Top 10 single in the US and the UK, peaking at number 4 in both countries.
In 1960, Albritten brought Bradley the pop ballad "I'm Sorry" for Lee to record. After recording, Bradley believed the song to be a hit, but Decca Records rejected it, theorizing that the song was too mature for Lee to record. Instead, "I'm Sorry" was issued as the B-side to the rock tune "That's All You Gotta Do". The A-side reached the Top 10 in the US and Australia, while "I'm Sorry" became Lee's first US number 1 single, spending three weeks at top spot. Bradley then found the Italian ballad "Per Tutta la Vita", which was translated into "I Want to Be Wanted". It became her second number 1 song in the US, second Australian Top 10 single, and first (and only) Top 10 US R&B single. A third ballad, "Emotions", reached upper ten placement on US and Belgian charts in late 1960. Her hit recordings were then included on corresponding LPs, two of which made the Top 10 of the US Billboard 200 chart: Brenda Lee and This Is...Brenda (both 1960). Lee was among pop music's best-selling artists during the early 1960s. Her ballads appealed to teenagers and adults alike. Between 1961 and 1963, nine of Lee's ballads made the Top 10 in the US, UK, or Australia: "You Can Depend on Me", "Dum Dum", "Fool No. 1", "Break It to Me Gently", "Speak to Me Pretty", "Everybody Loves Me But You", "Here Comes That Feeling", "All Alone Am I", and "Losing You". The singles appeared in several of Lee's studio LPs, including two that made the US Billboard Top 40: All the Way (1961) and Brenda, That's All (1962). Her 1963 album All Alone Am I reached number 8 in the UK. Decca and her manager further marketed Lee toward straight pop as she neared adulthood, having her appear in supper clubs and record standards. Studio LPs like 1962's Sincerely targeted adult audiences by centering completely on American standard tunes. Lee and her touring band (The Casuals) regularly appeared in club venues across New York, Boston, and Las Vegas. They were often backed by full orchestras complete with comedy sketches and Great American Songbook medleys. A 1963 review by Billboard magazine compared her nightclub routine to that of early 20th-century performer Sophie Tucker. Lee also found work in Europe, including a 1962 Hamburg, Germany, performance that featured The Beatles. Lee also continued her education, hiring a tutor to accompany her on tour. Albritten later moved her out of Nashville's public schools into Los Angeles's Hollywood Professional School, where she had classes with Peggy Lipton and Connie Stevens.
By 1964, Lee's musical career had expanded beyond English-speaking countries. She began recording her most popular songs in Spanish, German, Italian and French. The 1964 German singles "Wiedersehn ist Wunderschön" and "Ich Will Immer Auf Dich Warten" made the Top 40 on its pop chart. The same year, Mickie Most produced a single originally intended for the UK market, "Is It True". It later reached number 17 in both the US and the UK. The popularity of her various discs led to longer international tours. In her autobiography, Lee recalled appearing overseas more frequently in 1964 than in her home country. In November 1964, she joined Bob Newhart and Lena Horne in the Royal Variety Show, where she performed for Queen Elizabeth II of England. Albritten also wanted Lee to record for the Japanese market because he believed it was "largely untapped" by US performers. In July 1965, "One Rainy Night in Tokyo" (recorded mostly in Japanese) rose into the upper ten on the Japanese national chart. Lee then embarked on a twelve-day tour of Japan, which attracted audiences of more than 5,000 per concert. Lee recorded several more albums of Japanese material over the next decade and toured there over the next 25 years.
