"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958 on Decca 9-30776.

Although Decca released it in both 1958 and again in 1959, it did not sell well until Lee became a popular star in 1960; that Christmas season, it hit #14 on the Billboard pop chart and turned into a perennial holiday favorite. It continued to sell well during the holiday season, hitting #5 on the Christmas chart. Brenda Lee's recording still receives a great deal of airplay. Despite the song's title, its instrumentation also fits the Country genre which Brenda Lee more fully embraced as her career evolved. Despite her mature-sounding voice, she recorded this song when she was only 13 years old. The recording featured Hank Garland's ringing guitar and Boots Randolph's swinging solo sax break. For decades, Brenda Lee's recording was the only notable version of the song. Radio stations ranging from Top 40 to Adult Contemporary to Country Music to Oldies to even Adult Standards played this version. An instrumental version of the song appears as background music in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which exclusively featured music written by Marks. It can be heard in the scene where Rudolph first arrives at the Reindeer Games and meets another reindeer named Fireball.

Category:

Music

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• tom
• seymour
• music
• christmas
• murfreesboro
• tennessee
• jazz
• cover
• piano
• classical
• Merry
• Merry Christmas
• Holiday
• Holidays
• keyboard