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Who is Brenda Lee?

Ask anyone under 40 that question and they’ll stare blankly, or (like me) they might foolishly wonder aloud if her sister Sara is the one that makes a quick and easy apple pie.

That response, I can tell you from experience, will draw gasps and rolled eyes from the baby boomers among us, who clearly remember watching the cherub-faced teen belting out hits on television in a voice that seemed just too powerful for her tiny frame. She is a huge star, they will tell you, an icon of her generation. And the numbers don’t lie.

At 62, Lee has been a recording artist for 50 years. She leapt to superstardom after releasing her first single, “Jambalaya” at the ripe old age of 12, and she then went on to sell over 100 million records, many of them gold, like her 1960 hit single “I’m Sorry.”

For the entire decade of the 1960s, Lee was the top female charted act and fourth overall charted recording artist behind Elvis, the Beatles, and Ray Charles. She appeared alongside Elvis at the Grand Old Opry in 1957, and during a 1963 tour, her concert in Hamburg, Germany was opened by a then-unknown group of longhaired fellows, known as The Beatles.

Lee is the only woman to become an inductee in both the Country Music and Rock and Roll halls of fame, and she recorded music at a time when popular music was one genre, enjoyed by the majority of listeners, unlike today, when our musical tastes span rap, hiphop, metal, pop, alternative and many others.

Perhaps only one genre, Christmas music, can reach all audiences today, and in that category, Lee is hard to beat, as well. Lee has been “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” since she first released the song in 1958, and while it took two years to catch on, the swinging song is now a Christmas tradition. Lee proposed in an interview with the Herald last week its popularity was renewed in part because of its inclusion in the movie “Home Alone” in 1991.

“It’s awfully hard to have a Christmas standard,” she said. “I’m very proud of that. It’s been re-released every year since 1958.”
Today, the song is number four in the Billboard top ten Christmas songs of all time - no small accomplishment. And it introduced Lee’s music to a whole new generation of listeners.

Lee will be performing at The Wildwood’s Convention Center on Dec. 1 in the Holiday Spectacular. The evening show will feature many of the songs Lee made popular during her career.

“There will be a lot of audience interaction,” she said, and the show will also be a great way to kick off the holidays since it will feature many of the spirited Christmas songs that Lee has covered over the years.

Lee’s Christmas tour schedule is a busy one, but she makes sure to be home in Nashville by Christmas Eve to share the holiday with her husband, Ronnie, their children and grandchildren, she says. They’ll celebrate with a holiday meal, a visit from Santa and of course, some Christmas caroling.

If you’d like to get into the swing of Christmas with Brenda Lee, tickets are $50, $40, and $30 at La Piazza Cucina 609-522-8300 or at www.Ticketmaster.com or by phone at 800-736-1420. It’s a Christmas party where everyone can have fun. But Sara Lee is no relation, so you’ll have to bring your own pie.