Brenda Lee is back on the charts — 67 years after she first stepped up to the microphone to sing one of the most enduring Christmas songs of all time.
As the holiday season ramps up, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has re-entered Spotify’s Weekly Top Songs Global chart at No. 120, continuing a now-annual tradition for the 1958 staple. The track has appeared and reappeared on Spotify’s charts every winter since 2016, logging 53 total weeks and counting.
Even wilder? Lee was just 13 years old when she recorded it.
A 1958 Classic With a Remarkable Origin Story
Written by Johnny Marks — who also penned “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas” — the song was crafted specifically with Lee in mind. In a 2015 interview with The Tennessean, Lee recalled how Marks immediately championed her voice.
After writing “Rockin’,” Marks told a publisher friend, “I want Brenda Lee to do this song.” Looking back, Lee wasn’t entirely sure what sparked his conviction. “I was only 12 [when approached], and I had not had a lot of success in records, but for some reason, he heard me and wanted me to do it. And I did.”
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The recording session itself felt like stepping inside a winter wonderland. “When I walked into the studio, [producer Owen Bradley] had the lights way down low, the air conditioning was, I think, set on zero, and he had a Christmas tree and Christmas lights. I thought that was so special,” she remembered.
“It was magic, and I think we all knew it,” she said. “It took a few years to take off, but once it did, it really did.”
How Home Alone Helped Turn It Into a Holiday Staple
While “Rockin’” was already a seasonal favorite, 1990’s Home Alone sent it into the stratosphere. The film used the full song during one of its most famous scenes — when 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) stages a party at his house to get the Wet Bandits (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci) to think people are home — helping introduce it to a generation that hadn’t even been born when Lee scored her last non-holiday Top 10 hit.
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“(The movie) breathed new life into it, I think,” Lee said. “It has just been a blessing.”
Now 80 and turning 81 on December 11, Lee still includes “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in every setlist, no matter the month.
She estimates she has performed it “thousands and thousands” of times. Even in August, audiences go wild. And for Lee, the magic has never worn off.
“That’s the magic of a good song,” she explained. “You don’t get tired of singing it.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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